


Point Of View

by Han502653



Series: the Karairi Story [1]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: F/M, Gen, Irina has ptsd, Pre-Relationship, Rated teen for Irina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-05-02 05:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 58,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19192969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Han502653/pseuds/Han502653
Summary: When Karasuma first met Irina he didn't think much of her, when Irina first met Karasuma he was barely of note.This is a story of how that changed.(Retelling of the Assassination Classroom story from Irina and Karasuma's point of view taking both manga and anime influences.)





	1. English Time

**Author's Note:**

> First note, I'll admit right now that at the end of the story they aren't together--there are plenty of hint they may soon be, but I wanted to explore more of Karasuma's feelings and felt there wasn't to much indication that his feelings had changed since the Reaper incident since the teacher kind of went invisible after that. Now perhaps in the background he did fall for Irina, that could be an interesting story to write to, but I'm playing with a kinda dense slower falling in love Karasuma here.
> 
> Second note is that the story takes elements from both the manga and Anime and a few bits I changed fully--usually to take a bit of the buttmonkey status from Irina because she's supposed to be the best honey pot out there so sometimes it just doesn't makes sense.
> 
> I hope You Enjoy!

 

### First Hour

When Irina first arrived she didn’t care much at all for Karasuma. Oh he was good looking—she could see that—but there were millions of good looking men out there and she had a job to do.

Plus it was pretty obvious from the get go that he was one of _those_ people—either to overly dedicated to something, or just not into romance or sex on an internal level. As a Honeypot she had to know those kind of people existed and how to spot them—and work to either avoid them or change her strategy—but since he wasn’t her target she didn’t even have to do _that_ much.

He was annoying though—getting on her case about teaching—that was _not_ what she was here for—it was a cover and one that she wouldn’t need for more than half a day. That octopus was going down.

Except he didn’t

And as much as she wanted to pretend it wasn’t her fault she knew it was. She had been told to not use normal bullets—she had anyway—and her plan had failed.

She had failed.

It had been a long time since she properly failed. Plans going topsy-turvey, needing to fall back on her backups, or failing that come up with something on the fly—almost always, but fully _failed_ …

Despite being caught she stuck around. She had to kill that freaking mutant! She didn’t even care about that stupid reward that much—it was a matter of pride!

But the _brats_ —they wouldn’t put up with that. What did school matter if they were dead in a year? And these kids were here for a reason—school, entrance exams, what did they matter when they were already so behind. She hadn’t needed school to get where she was after all. She was even willing to share in the prize if they played along. That would get them farther than a couple of shitty English classes. It’s not like she _knew_ how to teach.

But instead they were getting in her way dammit! And that _Square_ —even though he should be more rational and focused on killing that thing—was _not_ helping!

And was it _really_ hard to say a god damn V dammit! They had to be doing it on purpose. She _knew_ it! Brats!

“What is with those Brats! I’m a pro! They should be grateful to even be in my presence!” she snarled, slapping her tablet down on to the desk she had been given— _had given_ —like _she_ was a teacher, what a _joke_ —her frustration an annoying ball in the center of her chest.

“Obviously they are not, considering the chaos in the classroom,” Karasuma snarked without even bothering to look her way or even stop his typing. She scowled at him. “Apologize to them—that is the only way you’ll get anywhere, presuming of course you want to make another attempt.”

She huffed. This again. “Why? I have no teaching experience—just let me focus on the stupid assassination.” Didn’t the man care that there was a ticking time bomb here. She would rather like to see next spring’s fashion line thank you very much!

He sighed and stood. “Let me show you something.”

 

Irina huffed as she watched the students play their game. In hindsight she supposed she could see the value in it—aim, coordination, instinct, muscle memory… they were still brats though! Spoiled ones! Lovro certainly never made any of her training a game! It was serious matter! A hard, grueling, serious matter!

She huffed and looked away.

“Target and teacher, assassin and student.” Karasuma started and she almost jumped, almost forgot he’d been there. “Here in this bizarre classroom that octopus has made for us everyone has two roles. You make a big deal about being a pro—but if you can’t be a teacher _and_ an assassin, then this is the worse place for a pro like you.”

The kids— _brats_ laughed at something in the distance, playing and training all at once and Irina was frozen.

“If you want to stay here and keep going after them,” Karasuma warned. “Then don’t look down on those kids.”

He walked away then and Irina was left staring at the ground.

Fine then. _Fine._

She’d prove them _all_ wrong!

 

She was _not_ nervous. Not even the slightest bit. They were just Brats. _Junior High_ Brats. They could do _nothing_ to her.

But it would be hard to keep going with her assassination if she didn’t win them over. And that Karasuma might get her taken away if she didn’t. She had to get this right.

She had charmed politicians, dictators, businessmen of all stripes, military men and those that liked to think they were, actors, entertainers— _this_ would be nothing.

…She had never really tried to charm kids before. And she was pretty sure Karasuma would get her kicked out if she tried kissing all of them…

In hindsight maybe that hadn’t been the best first move—but it had worked!

Dammit she needed a smoke—and not because she was nervous!—but she wouldn’t. Not until this mission was done.

She walked through the door. The room went quiet. She took a quick breath and walked to the chalkboard.

She didn’t know how to teach. She didn’t deal with children at all. Not even when she had been off mission as a teen had she bothered to spend time with anyone of that age—they always seemed so… _carefree._ They didn’t know _anything._

She couldn’t teach what was on their exams. She hadn’t been to school since she was a child—nor had she studied English then. But practical skills—conversation—pronunciation she knew how that worked.

That’s all she could offer.

“And if you still don’t think of me as your teacher then,” she offered with another deep breath. “I’ll give up the assassination and leave.”

That on its own may have been the riskiest part. These were brats. They didn’t understand how bad a situation they were in. With the amount of money on the line they very well could demand her to leave just because it made them feel like they had a better shot.

But Olga had said before—in the worst situations you have to take risks to get where you need to go. Give something to get something—or at least make it _seem_ that way.

“That ought to work with you,” she continued awkwardly even as she internally cursed herself. Some honeypot—she was making a mess of things. “And… I’m sorry about all that… other stuff…”

There. She did it.

The class burst into laughter.

Her stomach dropped even as her temper began to rise. She bit it back. She couldn’t snap at them again. Maybe she could still salvage this—

The kid with red hair—the one who started that stupid nickname—smirked at her. “Why so nervous? You were just threatening to kill us?”

She scowled at him, a witty resort on her lips—she was _not_ nervous!—but then she paused…

Ah… had she said that… that likely hadn’t helped anything…

She probably wouldn’t actually have had…

…probably.

Another one—with orange hair smiled crookedly. “She’s totally a teacher now.”

“Guess we can’t call her Bitch nee-san anymore,” said the girl next to him.

A warmth began to fill her. Not anger like before. Different. A little like embarrassment but not that either. It was… _nice._

“You...you understand,” she managed unable to stop herself from covering her mouth in awe. This was… this was going easier than planned. And she was failing with her act—her composure was all over the place and ohh wouldn’t have Olga been disappointed in her—but it was _working?_

“It _was_ a pretty rude thing to call a teacher,” another agreed.

The warmth in her stomach turned to bubbles and she couldn’t help but smile.

“Yeah. We need something else,” said another.

They… they _respected_ her? Maybe Karasuma was right. Maybe if she had just…

“How about Bitch-sensei,” Brat Number One offered and her warmth and bubbles snapped.

She swallowed her irritation. At least she had most of the class? _Right?_ She could handle one brat. “How about… we move away from the whole… _Bitch_ thing? How about you just call me by my first name—I don’t mind—”

“Yeah… that bitch thing is _really_ not going away,” the orange haired kid shrugged.

“Yeah, Bitch-sensei fits _way_ better than Irina-sensei,” another agreed.

“There you have it! Welcome, Bitch-sensei!”

“Let’s get started! Bitch-sensei!”

The heat was back—and it wasn’t warm anymore—just blazen hot. “I hate you all so much!!!”

Goddamn brats!

And she was _not_ cute!

 

 

### Second Hour

Karasuma’s first impression of Irina was… not positive to say the least.

He’d been given an extremely barebones dossier just prior to her arrival. That alone probably didn’t help his distaste, the sheer last minute warning before she arrived—though for _that_ he couldn’t blame her.

Based on it she was talented—he would give her that. One of the best honeypots in the world, eight confirmed kills and likely more unconfirmed, a reputation of finishing a job in forty eight hours after first contact, being able to make a plan in twenty-four—those were all great skills and feats, especially having done them by twenty years old. But he really didn’t see how her skills would be useful in this scenario. Their target was barely more than an octopus! Did he even _have_ a sex drive?

Frankly it rather annoyed him how well it _had_ initially worked, but he was fully willing to admit he was wrong. Any Intel was good Intel even if it made him sigh for the ridiculousness of what this would likely do to the children’s plans in the future. He really didn’t want to have to justify to his superiors a budget for porn magazines…

But what annoyed him more was her total disregard for the students—he would have expected her to at least _try_ and keep up her cover among them—their target was capable of Mach 20 flight and camouflage, not to mention at least _seemed_ to care about the students greatly so if one of them complained to him… it was an unnecessary risk, but he put up with it for the job. That either she would succeed and be gone or fail and be gone in a day or two.

And then she failed from a frankly idiotic choice of pride. Everyone had told her she needed to use the anti-octopus material to kill him and yet she used real bullets anyway.

But she didn’t leave, nor did she change her way. Her disregard of the students only seemed to worsen until she insulted both them _and_ their futures and was run out of the room. He had huffed in annoyance. _This_ was who he had to work with? She was less an assassin and more an over-entitled and immature celebrity.

Nonetheless it was who he had to work with so he may as well try, at least once.

He left her watching the assassination badminton match. He had no idea what she would choose, but frankly he thought she would be gone by tomorrow.

 

She wasn’t.

Her bag was at her desk when he came in from PE.  She wasn’t there but he knew she had to be around.

He apparently hadn’t given her enough credit, but the real test would be what she would do come English class, and if she even bothered to show up.

If he didn’t he would have to call his superiors. The kids deserved better than this and she had just become a liability.

But she did.

She passed him in the halls just after the last of the kids entered the room. She glanced at him only briefly and then looked away in a way he was tempted to call ashamed—or perhaps nervous. She didn’t say anything and opened the door to a suddenly silent classroom.

He decided after last time it was prudent to stay a moment and watch. His paperwork could wait.

Frustratingly enough a whip of air meant the octopus agreed.

“I’m glad to see she is starting to fit in,” he said cheerfully to Karasuma, seemingly unperturbed about Karasuma being at his back. From inside the classroom laughter and screechy insults squeezed out. He sighed. He didn’t think much work would get done today.

The octopus still wasn’t looking at him, his back one bare target.

He couldn’t help himself. He pulled his gun slightly.

“I’m glad. It will be a good thing for the students to have practice speaking with a foreigner—and who better than a professional international assassin.”

Karasuma froze his gun half out, as the target chuckled looking over his shoulder at him. How had…

“I think I’m going to go get some snacks while Irina-sensei has them occupied,” The octopus thought to himself, moving past Karasuma. With multiple blurs he dashed away and then back, bags in his hands.

Karasuma huffed in frustration. Had this somehow been a plot of his this whole time? Had he known Irina was the killer from the get go? Was he just trying to pretend to of had? Or did he somehow guess they would try this?

Karasuma sighed. His target just got stranger and stranger.

“You know what! I _am_ going to kill you!”

“Haha, you’re cute!”

“I am _not_ cute!”

He sighed again. This _mission_ just kept getting stranger and stranger.


	2. Challenge Time

Irina wouldn’t say she liked the brats, but at least for the most part when she did try and teach they shut-upd and listened. Though a few had revolted a bit on her sentence examples, and she supposed they had a bit of a point—they were not going to be _seducing_ their teacher.

Charming him though—well annoyingly they could already do that, now she just needed to get them to learn how to take _advantage_ of it.

And also to work on their pronunciations because even ignoring the whole… _bitch_ situation—they were horrendous. She bet the exams didn’t test for that. All study and no practical application. Hmph.

It was pretty boring to—as she waited to gather more Intel before the next true attempt. Class at least was something to do—but she only had them for a single period in the day.

So she found other things to do.

In particular Karasuma.

Or rather, that was the goal.

He _was_ very handsome—and while she normally avoid fooling with guys like him—it had already become clear she needed to work on her skills with her failure, and what better target than the king of squares. It had been awhile since she had a _real_ challenge.

But god was he _such_ a square.

“I’m not your target, stop fooling round.”

Meh

“If you hope to remain here as a teacher, pull yourself together.”

Bah.

She groaned, fanning herself with a folder. “Ugh, it’s so hot and sticky here. Why doesn’t this campus have air conditioning?”

He grunted. “I _have_ put in a request for renovations—but the administration refused.”

Irina blinked. Such a prestigious school and they couldn’t do some air conditioning, heck just a few window air conditioners, or an even a few fans. “Why not?”

He sighed and that caught her interest. She glanced over from the corner of her eyes and scanned his body language. He seemed upset, annoyed, tense. An odd amount to show from such a stern guy. _Interesting._

“Because that’s the kind of school this is.”

 

She hated this stupid mountain. Why the hell was the class all the way up this mountain? Was this some kind of sick punishment for being the bottom class?

She paused in her thoughts as she continued to catch her breath.

Was _that_ why they wouldn’t put air conditioners in.

She frowned. Well that was… rude.

Almost as rude as BEING LEFT BEHIND, AGAIN!!!

She scowled to herself and pushed herself to her feet, her chest still heaving and her feet throbbing. Hiking was not a hobby of hers and running through a mountain in heels was certainly not, but she was a professional and she wanted to see what the hell was going on with this school.

She took one last deep breath to steady her lungs, ignored the pain in her feet that she knew would lead to blisters, and walked forward.

Fashionably late was better anyway.

 

The assembly was frankly a bust. Nagisa either really had nothing left of any use, or was far more capable of withstanding her charm that she expected of which she doubted. The brats were bullied by the student council in front of all the students and teachers and nobody did anything. Nobody but the damn octopus who showed up suddenly with handwritten handouts.

Not that she cared about that, but he having to play human had seemed like the perfect time to take a strike. Sometimes assassination meant going off plan when the opportunity struck.

Except he still dodged and Karasuma not only took her knife but pinned her arm and forced her out like a common criminal. Maybe he had a point about stealth and state secrets and assassins and law but really—he didn’t have to _yell_ so much. Let alone basically ground her and send her back up the mountain alone.

Were knives really _that_ uncommon in schools? She would swear all the older kids had had knives back when she was in school.

Granted there had been a war then…

Ugh, whatever—what had she learned today: The targets speed was still impressive in minute movement and he could avoid too much notice even while disguised, the school they were at freaking sucked, and Karasuma was still a boring old square.

So mostly a bust. Oh well, at least on the walk she had plenty of time to figure out what kind of extra homework she was going to give those brats for laughing at her. Maybe make them find, translate, and act out an entire scene of an English show?—that would get them groaning and complaining. And she wouldn’t have to do any grading out of class either!

And maybe she could figure out a new gameplan for the Karasuma problem. That man really needed that stick removed from his ass… or perhaps one shoved up it.

Honestly he may just be a bigger problem than that octopus.

Oh well, she had plenty of time to figure him out to.

 

Teaching was exhausting. And frustrating. How was she supposed to figure out how to kill that damn octopus if she was too exhausted and focused on playing teacher? She had to do paperwork! Paperwork!

Yeah sure that octopus was teaching way more classes than she was, including some of the English classes—but dammit you couldn’t judge her against a Mach 20 octopus. And she _knew_ Karasuma judged her—but bah, yeah sure he managed both PE and his normal whatever exactly governmental job—but at least _he_ had a teaching degree and license— _He_ knew how this stuff worked.

She was making it all up from scratch—which was taking away time from trying to figure out a good plan!

But… well at least it didn’t seem to be _all_ for nothing—she _had_ noticed their pronunciation was getting better. So at least that wouldn’t be grating on her ears too much—and it was a bit more peaceful now that they weren’t actively against her. They weren’t really with her—certainly none of them had come to her to ask her to be a part of any plans—but at least they weren’t driving her from the classroom and risking getting her taken away before she managed another shot.

But god she was exhausted!

“Teaching is such a pain,” she grumbled falling back into her chair, finally free from that classroom. But it was a false freedom—as she still had to figure out what to do for tomorrow’s lesson.

Maybe she could get away with a movie? Tell them it was to broaden their conversation skills through example—or something. She’d used Sex In the City lines today after all—though Karasuma would probably veto showing the actual movie…

“The students are unexpectedly fond of you though,” Karasuma replied.

They… _were_? Certainty they were tolerating her more, but _fond_?

…whatever—that didn’t matter. She wasn’t here to make friends with fifteen year olds. They _should_ be fond of her anyway—it’s her job to make people fond of her!

“That’s nothing to brag about—I’m an assassin, not a teacher. I’m just here until I kill that octopus!” She glared over at said creature. “Who s _peaking_ of which, is _staring_ at my boobs!”

He just grinned at her from behind a tea cup, face pink like a gumball. “Real life lesson from experience—how marvelous!”

“Oh! Shut up!” She drew her knife and stabbed a few times. As expected it did nothing, not even relive some stress as he continued grinning down at her.

“Don’t let him get to you—that’s just the kind of target he is,” Karasuma warned from the side.

Irina growled under her breath. “Shit. I won’t stand for this!” She dashed away from the room angry and frustrated and not bothering to hide either. She hated that octopus. She hated him. She _hated_ him. How the hell was she supposed to kill him?

She _had_ to kill him.

She couldn’t get stuck in a place like this and yet no matter how she had risen through the ranks and all the kills she made she couldn’t think of a way to kill him.

But there had to be a way. There had to be a—GCK!

She flew up into the air, barely getting a hand between the wire and her neck in time to avoid breaking it. She struggled fiercely—a wire trap! Why now! Why her!

“Irina, what a surprise…” An extremely familiar voice in an extremely familiar language broke through her panic.

“Seeing you play teacher, exchanging farewells with those students—it was like a set up for a comedy sketch!”

 “G-gospodine?” Why was Lovro here! What had she done to make him trap her?

 

To Karasuma’s surprise Irina wasn’t a bad teacher for someone untrained as well as reluctant. The children’s English skills had grown significantly, and even some of their conversational skills as well. Okuda seemed less unsure of herself as she spoke up in class at least.

Also surprisingly, and maybe more on the character of the children than Irina herself, was that the students seemed to have grown fond of their “bitch-sensei” rude name aside. He wasn’t quite sure they saw her as a teacher—not with how they teased her—but as an older tutor—maybe even something approaching a friend.

Of course Irina didn’t seem to care about that. But since she was at least fulfilling her duty as both teacher and assassin it wasn’t his place to say anything. It was likely best she didn’t get attached to the children anyway.

The octopus was gone again and after a final email Karasuma got up and rubbed his face. He wondered if Irina was still in the school—or if she had left in her huff. He was surprised someone who made her fame on her acting ability and infiltration could be so led by emotions. Nonetheless he had some things to discuss with her while the target was away.

He did not expect to leave the staff room to hear gasping and the sound of a shoe falling to the floor. He dashed to the science lab classroom to find Irina hanging from the ceiling by a wire trap—staring down a foreign man in a long coat. The man turned to him as he entered, seeming unsurprised.

“What are you doing?” he ordered in English, the only foreign language he knew. “Put her down.”

He said something lightly in a language Karasuma didn’t know but he did pull a knife from his sleeve and cut the line. Irina fell like a stone, gasping, and instantly pulled the noose from her neck. From what he could see there was no bleeding, so at least it hadn’t been razor wire.

“Who are you? Do you even understand me?” he asked.

The man tilted his head. “My apologizes. Japanese’s is fine. As for who I am—I’m nobody suspicious I assure you.  I’m the one who meditated between Irina Jelavić and the country’s government. I’m sure you understand now.”

Karasuma’s eyes went a bit wide. Lovro. The hitman dealer. Once a famous assassin he’d eventually retired—only to make a fortune in training younger assassins and meditating between them and their hits. He was indispensable to Japan—as without him they would lose any real access into the hitman community.

But why was he here?

He turned back to the window. “By the way—where is this ‘Korosensei’ now?”

Karasuma frowned. “He left for Shanghai to get almond jelly—seeing as he left about half an hour ago he should be back soon.”

The man huffed a croaky laugh. “I see. He’s just as much the monster as I heard.” He turned back to Irina whom hadn’t yet gotten off the floor. “It’s a good thing I came. Now I have my answer.”

He leaned down. “Withdraw from this mission Irina. This job is impossible for you.”

She ducked her head. Karasuma raised an eyebrow—surprised to see the usually loud and opinionated woman so cowed, especially with how she had fought to continue with the job already. “That was a quick decision. You were the one who recommended her, weren’t you?”

He nodded, turning his back once again to Irina. “Now that I’ve seen things first hand things have changed. She is already unqualified for this job. As an infiltrations specialist her abilities are second to none—but once her cover is blown she is worthless as an assassin.”

It was a harsh way of putting it but Karasuma couldn’t deny he hadn’t considered the same thought. Now that Irina had blown her cover—thought he highly expected the target had known all along whom she was… which in hindsight really wasn’t that surprising—her abilities were significantly decreased and her best chance ruined. Logically a new assassin would be a better choice—Nonetheless she had been helping the students and he was beginning to think they would be the best shot at this.

Lovro turned back to her again. “You should have known that… but in the end you disgraced yourself and stayed on as a sham of a teacher—I did _not_ teach you for you to turn around and do _this.”_

“No! That’s not—I can defiantly kill him, Gospodine! If I use my skills—!”

“Oho, well then—” Karasuma blinked and the man had moved, one of Irina’s arms behind her back and his thumb jammed into her neck. He was fast—impressively so. “Can you do moves like this?”

She choked and he shook his head. “There are plenty of other missions more suitable for you. Clinging to this one is a waste of time and money. Leave this to someone more qualified. The second of the two assassin transfer students has shown great combat skills, and I hear the preparation regarding their transfer is ready.”

Irina didn’t respond, just glared down at the floorboards.

“Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses—call this your L and R.”

“Your half right anyway!” The target cheered from behind them, his face lit up like a scoreboard. Karasuma sighed as they both jumped.

“What are you doing here, game show?”

“That’s mean. Please, just call me Korosensei!”

Lovro pulled away from him at the brief moment of distraction but Korosensei was already back on him. “As assassins go she’s is certainly not frightening. She’s shit.”

“Who are you calling shit!” she finally snapped and was ignored.

“But as assassins go, she’s a good fit for this classroom.” His grin somehow went wider. “Let’s hold a kill off, and you’ll see who the superior assassin is.”

 

“Do whatever you want!” Karasuma shouted losing his cool and turning and stomping away. Irina watched him go, a bundle of nerves in her stomach. She already knew how much of a square he was. He wouldn’t fall for any of her normal tricks—not even if he hadn’t known what she was or what she was doing.

“Hitting him with this blade is impossible for you, Irina,” Her master continued, stepping forward and into her face. Irina flinched. “I’m the very one who taught you all you know of assassination. I know exactly which things are feasible and which are impossible for you.”

She didn’t look him in the eye. She couldn’t look him in the eye. And she knew that alone was a failure in his book.

“And with this assassination game I will make that clear to you. Then you will obediently step down from this job.” He stepped back and away, making his way to the door taking a look at the octopus. “And I will once again select an agent—who _will_ kill you.”

The door slammed closed.

“Well that went well I think,” the octopus said patting her back. Irina flinched from him and glared.

“Are you trying to _stick up_ for me?” she snapped. The octopus simply stared at her with that stupid grin. “You must think I would be easier to deal with than any new assassin, right? Well I’ll show you! I’ll kill Karasuma _and_ you myself!”

She turned and stomped away, anger and frustration ten times stronger than it had been.

She had to win. She _had_ to. She _couldn’t_ leave now.

But how…?

 

Honestly the drink wasn’t even poisoned. The whole point was to not _kill_ the guy but to stab him after all. She knew it would fail before it started but she had to _try_ —if only to see _how_ badly it would fail.

She had worked to recover failed missions before—but never had she ever had to seduce someone who _knew_ she was a honeypot! A tease sure, unfaithful sure, gold-digger sure, but an _actual_ assassin honeypot, _never_. That was _so_ unfair.

And she didn’t have time. Lovro was shrewd and resourceful—but if she worried about him too much she’d be sure to lose. She had to focus on her mission. How to kill this stupid agent!

And she was scared that when Lovro hit Karasuma wouldn’t bother dodging, agreeing with Lovro that a new assassin would be better.

But he’d tried to help her before—telling her what she needed to do to stay instead of just getting rid of her but… it’s been almost a month… time was slowly running out.

She had to think of something. She _had_ to.

 

Karasuma continued to work as normal—albeit more on guard than usual. It was a bit uncomfortable—Irina staring at him like she was, though he had no idea what she thought it would accomplish—but the real concern was Lovro. He hadn’t seen the man all day and one didn’t make it to retirement in the hitman world easily. He expected him to strike at any moment—and to be a challenge.

He _hadn’t_ expected him to attack head on. Albeit it wasn’t entirely thoughtless as he realized his chair wouldn’t roll back easily thanks to a loose board he didn’t remember being there yesterday. Still it was almost disappointing as he snatched the arm from the air and smashed it onto the table below. It didn’t matter if his chair couldn’t roll back if he twisted enough to cause it to tip over while also bringing up his knee to Lovro’s cheek—stopping only last minute. The hitman could only stare blankly as the knife fell from his grasp.

Karasuma sighed. Perhaps if he’d been unaware that would have worked, but if he’d been unaware of the challenge the drink may have worked as well—since up to this moment Irina’s seductions had been nothing but a bored honeypot looking to entertain herself. He’d really expected more of a challenge from Lovro.

“For an old and retired, but yet skilled assassin, you must have thought it would be easy…” he said as he released the man and grabbed the knife from the floor. “To kill someone who until recently was a part of the elite forces…” he continued in a drawl before looking at the three.

Irina had stood with her knife ready in her hand. Karasuma didn’t know if she had been hoping to stab him while he was distracted or if she had reacted instinctually to help her master. Either way she seemed frozen from the display. He sighed again, unimpressed.

He looked over at the octopus and grinned. Disappointed and unimpressed as he was, he was quite pleased with how this was going.

“I’m sure you realize if you don’t kill me today…” Both of them flinched and only in hindsight he realized Irina would take that the wrong way. Nonetheless he didn’t really care.

He was going to kill that octopus.

 

“Feh.”

Irina glanced away from the closed door and winced as she caught a good look at the damage Karasuma had done to Lovro’s hand. It was already twice its size and if not broken then badly sprained. Worry pinged in her gut.

“I misjudged his fighting strength and this is the result. Growing old is a terrible thing.”

“Gospodine … your hand…”

He ignored her. “I can’t assassinate him today with a hand like this.” He shook his head. The octopus jumped at him, massaging his shoulders and shouting out encouragement. Irina bristled a little bit—now he wanted _Lovro_ to win? What was the point of this farce then?

“And even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to kill you Korosensei,” The man sighed. He looked to her and Irina froze. “The same goes for Irina.”

Irina glanced away with sweat dripping down her forehead. Her master was right, and with Karasuma so surprisingly motivated…

“I see… You have given up then,” The octopus said, his tone taking on a scornful tint, once again behind her, his tentacle over her shoulders. She didn’t even bother to flinch. “But before projecting the results… please watch Irina-sensei’s efforts until the very end… because whether they have experience or not, ultimately the ability to _kill_ is what makes an excellent assassin.”

Lovro grunted in disproval and turned to leave. “Do what you please.”

The door slammed shut. Irina watched it in silence for a long moment before turning to the Octopus. “Do you… _honestly_ believe I can hit Karasuma with a knife?”

“Of course,” he said with such conviction that Irina almost believed him without thought. “I don’t know what you learned under your master, but I know full well what you have learned since coming to this classroom.”

Irina blinked at him, that warm bubbly feeling filling her gut for a moment. She wasn’t used to such… _support._

“Like for instance, mail-ordering this underwear,” he continued with excitement, holding up her catalogue. “You’re doing such a good job!”

“Y-you, you pervert!” she snapped, snatching the catalogue from his grasp. He laughed slightly.

“Show them what you can do. Karasuma-sensei, your teacher, but most importantly your students.” He handed her a knife. She took it and frowned.

He left after that, talking about being hungry for Philly cheese steaks, leaving her alone in the staff room. She had to think of something. Lovro may have given up but she would still lose if she didn’t get that square, and she didn’t want to go back. She wanted to kill that creature. She wanted to repair her pride. She hadn’t finished teaching the kids all the slang she knew yet…

_Why was she worried about that?_

Groaning she plopped back at her seat and stared at her bag. Something glinted in the light shining under the door. The wire strings she’d stolen from Lovro. He’d never taught her to use one. It hadn’t been important for the type of assassin she was training to be. But she didn’t want to feel as helpless as she had with it under her neck. She had to learn how it worked—figure out how to defend against it better than the brief lesson she’d had.

Actually. That Octopus had once told her how his student’s plans were more flexible and creative… out of the box… maybe…

 

He wasn’t impressed.

For the most part that’s what he felt of Irina as a whole, from the moment she arrived hanging off the target. Her foolhardy mistake of using real bullets despite others advice, her former complete disdain and respect for the children, her constant immaturity and lack of emotional control, her continued flirtatious actions toward him for her own amusement—none of it was impressive. He recognized that at points he’d underestimated her—she came through on teaching the kids for one—but she had never impressed him.

But frankly her walking up to him with a knife—this had to take the cake. And that _was_ impressive, compared to how see-through her poisoning attempt that morning had been.

That had been his first mistake.

“Do you have a moment, Karasuma?”

“What now?” He sighed. Couldn’t he at least eat his burger in peace? “This may be a mock assassination, but I’m done playing around.”

“Aw, come on, Karasuma,” she pouted, pulling her jacket off. He sighed. When would she learn? “I _really_ want to stay here, you know that.”

Was she trying to convince him to let her win—so she could stay? He did know that she wanted to—and perhaps just to make this stupid thing end it would have worked—but he had a bigger fish to fry.

“One little poke and it will all be over.”

She winked at him. He did his best to avoid looking at her straight on—just to refuse giving her what she wanted.

“I’ll give you something in return. The best of the best—like you _never_ had before.”

This was pointless but he could make it end, if this was all she had to offer Irina truly would be best replaced. Just play along until she got close and steal her knife.

His second mistake.

“Fine. Hit me wherever you like,” he sighed looking away but keeping her in his peripherals. She grinned giddily, completely oblivious.

His third mistake.

She circled the tree—playfully. “Alright, here I COME—!”

He yelped as his foot was thrown out from under him and he was sent flying to the ground. She was on him before he could even think. Her eyes wide like she was as surprised as he was. He barely managed to clap the knife between his hands only an inch or two from his chest.

That was close. That was _far_ too close.

But he managed it—and in a contest of strength he would win. She seemed to realize that as well, desperation passing through her gaze. Then they went wide, puppy dog like. “Can I, Karasuma, _please_?”

“No one is going to just _let_ you kill them,” he snapped at her and her expression fell into a scowl, her hands refusing to relent.

He sighed. She just wouldn’t quit. And if he let her go she’d just try again in an hour, and then another hour. What was the point? It had only been a verbal agreement—like he had just said—nobody would actually just stand still to be killed.

This really was pointless.

“Fine.” He released the knife and the point plopped into his chest. “You win. I’m not going to spend all day entertaining a bad quitter.”

For a moment she just stared at him with honest shock. Then she jumped up looking exhausted but satisfied. She didn’t bother to stay around, turning and leaving with a great sigh of relief.

He ignored her, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. His eyes caught the wire coiled around the tree and he briefly examined the trap. He had to admit, it had worked better than he was comfortable with. He had completely fallen for her misdirection and even just a second quicker and with a real knife he would be dead.

It _was_ impressive and that image of her pinning him to the ground… that was the first time he could say he looked at her and saw a pro assassin.

 

Irina wasn’t stupid as much as she pretended she was. Karasuma had let her win—but in a way that was in a way a win itself, annoying someone until they did what you wanted still meant they did what you wanted.

Plus, honestly she was rather smug by getting him pinned—even if in a real fight it would have only lasted a moment before he got free. The look of shock on his face had been _very_ satisfying.

The cheers from the students well… that had been rather nice as well.

Completely worth staying up until three in the morning last night practicing with the wires. She hadn’t thought it would be useful so quickly, or be used on Karasuma, but she was more than pleased.

She turned the corner of the building, exhausted from the adrenalin surge, only to freeze as she came face to face with Lovro. She’d almost forgotten the Octopus had convinced him to stick around.

Her glee faded. “Gospodine.”

“What a troublesome student.”

Her stomach lurched… Was he _angry_ at her? She thought she had done well, but he had always told her to stick to the essentials and her specialty—that there was no purpose in wasting time on anything else.

Would he still try and make her leave.

Would she be able to refuse…

“I couldn’t have done it better myself.” He grinned at her and Irina nearly jolted in surprise. “You better kill him.”

“I will, Gospodine, I will,” she promised joy and glee swirling through her. She did it! She had done it! She could _stay!_

She’d gotten Lovro’s approval!

She was going to kill that Octoperv. _Nothing_ could stop her now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to be clear, the sudden capitalizing of "Octopus" in Irina's POV is on purpose, it shows that she's seeing him a slightly different light after he supported her like he had.
> 
> It's my understanding that when Irina is first trapped that her and Lovro are speaking Serbian which Karasuma does not know. Gospodine is roughly Serbian for Master or Sir, and is what Irina first calls him when she has the wire around her neck in the anime, so I though I'd run with that as a nod to her history.


	3. PE Time

She didn’t like him.

Shiro that was. Everything about him put her on edge. From his white clothing to the way he simply acted so at ease reading his manga as if he belonged here. She wasn’t sure if it was her assassination sense or just her sleazy guy sense but something about him was _wrong._

It didn’t help that Karasuma seemed uncertain at his presence as well—he was supposed to _know_ what the government was cooking up and if he didn’t that meant things were coming from the shadowy fucked up corners all governments had.

And that boy—a top governmental secret—at best that meant he had been trained since birth to be a killer—and he certainly acted wacko enough for that—but that didn’t explain being able to walk through a _wall._

No. There was something more happening here. Something _more_ happening with that boy.

But it wasn’t her problem, even if it made her feel uncomfortable, so she sat quietly trying to read her new fashion catalogue until the end of the day.

 

Poor kid, passed through her mind as she watched him taken away despite the Octopus’ best efforts. Taken away back to whatever shadowy hole he’d come from, and likely not to hugs and support either. Then she scoffed to herself at her sentimentality.

She glanced back at Karasuma to see him looking sternly away—he was uncomfortable as well she gathered, but duty bound. She considered him for a moment, wondering how far his duty-boundness would go—before returning her gaze to the embarrassed octopus in front of her.

“That was a real surprise—to think that Itona kid would whip out a bunch of tentacles?”

The kids jumped on to her lead as she hoped; urging the Octopus for more details—unfortunately the only answer they got was useless before he walked away. Irina hmphed, as disappointed as they were, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t learned a lot today.

The Octopus was for sure now an artificial monster—and so was that kid. But he’d been human, more or less, and that Shiro guy had even said the two had different parents—which implied rather heavily that _both_ of them had once been a normal human if only at birth.

And that Shiro guy—he was working with the government to kill the target, he was the caretaker to that kid, and he’d mentioned readjustments on the kid implying he knew how the whole tentacle things _worked…_

It was possible both of them had been some experiment—and the kid had been saved before turning into an octopus himself, but Irina was doubting that with the Octopus’ complete bewilderment and anger of the boy and his existence, no—she suspected she knew who had been financing the experiment… and who was now trying to clean up their mistakes.

The kids piled out of the room heading for their lockers leaving Karasuma and her behind. As he too turned to leave she called out to him.

“Did you know? That the kids had tentacles like the Octopus?”

He paused. Irina wondered what he would say. She wondered if he would be truthful. Boring square that he was he was difficult to read so it would be hard to tell no matter what he said. Finally he turned to her.

“I did not. I knew that there were two assassin transfer students who would be joining us but not their names or abilities until they arrived.” He nodded over to the corner of the room. “It was the same for Ritsu.” He paused and met her eyes and Irina almost stepped back from the depth of it. “I was unaware that another tentacle being existed, let alone a child.”

Irina blinked and then nodded, trying to cover her slip up of nerves by reaching out for his arm. “Of course—I didn’t mean anything _bad_ —I could make it up to _you_ —”

“No.” He shook her off and continued to the staff room.

Irina sighed. It was really unfair for such a square to be so sexy.

She would crack him yet.

 

“Well his place looks like a dump,” Irina stated as she joined the girls on the cracked asphalt. “If you all weren’t here I would have thought I had the wrong place.”

“ _Thanks,_ Bitch-sensei,” Nakamura drawled bouncing a ball up and down.  “It’s not like we can practice in the main campus gym so this is the best we got.”

“Yeah, the field Korosensei made for us is fine for baseball, but the ground isn’t hard enough to properly dribble a ball right now.” Kurahashi continued catching the ball as Nakamura threw it. “Plus the guys have pretty much taken over it.”

Irina hummed, glancing around the old fenced in court over the top of her sunglasses. The baskets were in terrible condition—none of them had a net anymore. Of the four benches that had once been there only one was still capable of being sat upon—and it was covered in crude graffiti. The asphalt was filled with cracks and weeds. “I see…” She turned back to them. “Why am _I_ here again?”

“You said you didn’t really know basketball,” Katoka reminded. “And since you’ll be expected to escort and chaperon us while we’re playing the game—you should know at _least_ the basics.”

She grunted. “It can’t be _that_ hard—isn’t it all running around bouncing the ball and shooting it into that hoop?”

“If it’s so easy why don’t you give it a try?” Nakamura said with a crooked grin. Irina raised an eyebrow as other grins soon followed suit—all looking at her hungrily.

She rolled her eyes. She could see where this was going. “Alright—ball?”

Someone from her peripherals shot it at her and she caught it without much hindrance. She bounced it a few times like she had seen the others do with only one hand — annoying with her nails but possible, and then threw it at the closest hoop.

It circled the rim a few times but it went in.

“There.” She grinned at the shocked and disappointed faces surrounding her.

“I thought you _didn’t_ know basketball?”

“I don’t but I _do_ know coordination and aiming,” she rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I think you all forget I _am_ an assassin—AH!” She stumbled as the heel of her sandal twisted in a crack. She caught herself but her face went red as the girls around her giggled.

“Oh, shut up!”

 

The day of the exhibition came only a week later and with Irina significantly more informed of what basketball was like. It hadn’t been hard—a book and some reading—she’d done it before with both football and American football to smooth her introductions to some team owners. This was just the same.

The girls did well enough—certainly enough to annoy the other girls and their teachers. She’d had to hide her smirk behind her book as she caught whispers of, “shouldn’t the basketball team have won already?” and, “they’re actually putting up a fight?” and “this isn’t right?”

Served them right. And maybe the girls hadn’t won but… she was kind of proud of those brats. They’d worked hard over the last week—meeting up after school each day in that old run down city court—she would have preferred if they hadn’t dragged _her_ along to that ugly park but whatever.

They even finished in time to see the end of the baseball game the boys were doing.

She trailed behind the girls a bit her face in a book. She’d planned to get the basics of baseball down—just for future reference of coarse—during the girl’s game but she’d been more… distracted… than she had expected.

“And of course Bitch-sensei’s cheering helped,” Nakamura teased glancing over her shoulder.

“I wasn’t cheering,” Irina huffed, hiding her face behind her book. “I was telling you to get your act together.”

The girls laughed. “Sure. Sure.”

Irina huffed. _Brats_. But… she found herself smiling as well.

Today— _this week_ … it had kind of been fun. Kind of nice being involved— _asked_ to come along—with them.

 

_Fucking_ Brats. _Fucking_ Octoperv. _Fucking_ Karasuma.

Irina scowled as she furiously wiped the ink off her face.

She had been _knocked out_ —and not only did _nobody_ care or worry—they took the chance to _draw_ all over her.

Even on her boob!

Fucking Octoperv.

But yet _she_ was the one to get in trouble. Bah. She wasn’t going to shoot the _kids_ dammit—she’d just wanted to let off steam and the Octoperv would have dodged anti-teacher bullets!

God her head hurt.

She honestly had no idea whether it had been just that Octopus or if the kids had been involved but dammit they had watched! _Someone_ could have tried to defend her!

And that stupid Karasuma—couldn’t he be one her side for _once!_

She scowled as her arms remained lightly stained and quickly turned away from the mirror to avoid the impulse of punching it.

She thought maybe the brats were beginning to respect her. She’d thought they even liked…

Well it didn’t matter what she thought. She swallowed the sour feelings of frustration and hurt and made for the staff room.

She didn’t get far as crowded around the girl’s bathroom door was about a quarter of the class.

“What do you want?” she snapped.

The kids shifted. Katoka and Isogai glanced at each other as if expecting the other to speak first.

“Get out of my way—I don’t want to deal with—”

“I’m sorry.”

Irina blinked and looked to the side where Sugaya was standing awkwardly. “Huh?”

“I… I’m sorry. I was the one who started it and um…” he grimaced looking nervous. “I… I also drew on you… that was wrong.” He glanced at her arm and grimaced more when he noticed the faded lines stained on her skin.

“We are _all_ sorry,” Yada agreed. “It was also wrong for us to just _watch_ to… so we’re sorry.”

The rest of the group echoed those apologizes and Irina stared around at them, frustration and anger battling surprise and warmth until she sighed and covered her eyes with her hand. God was it pounding.

“Fine. Whatever. Don’t do it again,” she grumbled and she heard a few sighs of relief.

“Are you okay, Bitch-Sensei?” Kurahashi asked.

“I’m… fine,” she answered dropping her hand and feeling dizzy for a second. “I just need to sit down for a while…” _God_ was the sun bright this time of day.

“Oh! You don’t have a concussion do you?” Katoka asked in concern.

“She _did_ black out…” Isogai realized belatedly. “I don’t think you can black out from a blow to the head without a concussion…”

“I think I can get some ice!” Kurahashi shouted making Irina wince as she ran off.

“Look. I’m fine,” Irina huffed uncomfortably. “I know how to take care of a concussion. I’ve had them before—”

The kids weren’t listening to her. Nagisa and Kayano were leading her down the hall to the staff room like she was an invalid. Nakamura was hurrying to open the door for them. The others were discussing what they knew about concussions as they trailed behind.

…Maybe they weren’t _all_ bad. Even if this was entirely unnecessary and kind of embarrassing.

“What are you doing?”

Irina winced at the curt tone of Karasuma’s voice. Her head hurt too much to deal with his continued disapproval.

“Bitch-sensei passed out and that means she has a concussion… we didn’t realize until now,” Nagisa admitted sheepishly. Karasuma’s eyebrows rose and he glanced at her. Irina glanced away in embarrassment before they caught eyes—all she could remember was her foot flying out from under her—but god was that embarrassing for a pro assassin. She _knew_ he’d judge her.

“I didn’t realize you had passed out.”

“What?” She snorted. That was a bad idea and she swayed a bit. “You though I just stood still and let that Octoperv draw on me?”

“He can fly at Mach speeds. I figured you had no choice.”

She grunted and pushed through the kids. “Whatever. I just want to sit down—” She stumbled and Karasuma caught her before she could fall. She blinked stunned as his strong arms steadied her back on her feet and yet didn’t fully retreat even as she found her balance.

“Careful,” he stated helping her to her chair.

“I’m fine,” she grumbled, face red.

He hummed in empty acknowledgment before walking over and turning off the light. Irina hadn’t realized how much they had been bothering her and couldn’t help but sigh in relief. “I’ll keep an eye on her,” he told the kids hovering about. “Go back to class.”

Irina’s face burned more. Maybe… Karasuma wasn’t that bad either, even if this all was still unnecessary and embarrassing.

That Octopus was still the _worst_ though!

 

“What is this that I hear that instead for getting help for an unconscious coworker, you instead took the chance to draw all over her?”

The target grinned weakly. “Well—you see…ah…”

 

“Bitch-sensei, do you know French?”

“Oui, je fais. Qu'en est-il?”

The other girls looked up in confusion from their books and snacks. Katoka’s face crinkled a bit. “I understood, ‘yes I do,’ but not really the second bit.”

“Yes, I do. What about it?” Irina translated, in English just to be obtuse, while checking to make sure her nails had an even coat. She and some of the girls had started hanging out outside in the shade in an effort to avoid dying of heat during breaks. She didn’t quite know how she’d ended up spending this time with children but… it wasn’t _so_ bad.

“Oh… well um, I was wondering if you could give me some advice? On learning it… I’ve been trying to self-study for a while but… so far all I’m really doing is learning to _read_ it.”

“That is generally the easiest step,” Irina agreed setting aside her nail polish for a moment. “Try saying something, anything.”

Katoka paused in thought for a second. “Bonjour, mon nom est Kataoka Megu?”

Irina crossed her still drying fingers. “Yes. I see your problem. French is tricky in that a lot of its letters have become silent over the years. For instance, what you said as _est_ , should sound more like _ɛ_.”

“Oh… that why I can never understand anyone when I look up examples online…” Katoka admitted frustrated.

“Let me guess, a lot of your practice speaking comes from reading the words from a book—or something like that?”

She nodded.

“That’s your first problem—you’re approaching it from an English base. Despite the alphabets looking very similar the letters can mean very different sounds—especially the vowels. You have to look at it on its own.”

“Okay… and how do you suggest doing that?”

“Well beside a proper language book and dictionary—which I’m sure you already have,” Irina said picking up her nail polish again to start on her other hand. “Try to look up movies or TV shows in French—I understand that France has a good animation collection to choose from if that’s more your interest—and try to get ones with accurate closed captioning or at least a transcript to read along—that will help you connect the sounds to the words. Make sense?”

“Hmm, yeah, it does. Thank you Bitch-sensei!”

Irina rolled her eyes. “I’d feel more thanked if you called me Irina,” she pointed out.

The girls laughed and Irina sighed going back to her nails. All this talk of French had actually reminded her of her one of her guilty pleasures, a collection of Hanadan in French that she had read after she had mastered French and before she had seriously started working on Japanese.

She wondered if Megu liked Hanadan.

Irina shook her head. What was she thinking? It didn’t matter. She had left those books in a storage locker in France before she came here.

 

She didn’t know if it was because the last guy who ended up showing up here had been such a creep, or if it was just something about him, but Irina defiantly got the creepy guy alarm from the new guy Takaoka.

He was just _so_ forced—his kindly old dad persona—that it was easy for her to see through it. The question was—what was under that mask? Was he just a square like Karasuma but capable of acting like a kind old dad to bond with the kids, or was it something else?

She’d been spying—ah… _watching_ Karasuma train the kids when he’d arrived and even from a distance something seemed off—number one being the amount of bags of sweets he had with him. Sneaking closer she’d overheard just who he was and why he was here.

Helping Karasuma train the kids—or rather taking over training almost completely.

It was a shame really. She’d come to enjoy watching Karasuma train with the kids. He was extremely graceful on his feet and with the summer heat he’d also rolled up his sleeves, showing his lower arms to the world.

God, why did such a hot guy have to be such a square? Here she was drooling over a guy’s forearms—not even his biceps—but _forearms._ It was ridiculous.

She still remembered how strong they had felt around her…

God she’d wish he’d take off his shirt—or at least the tie and open a few buttons. She was stuck spending most of her time up a mountain with an octopus and a bunch of kids—he could at least give her _something_ to ogle at.

But no, he his resolve continued to be as solid as a rock.

And this new guy was going to be nowhere near as good eye candy. While she didn’t doubt that behind that round face and pudgy stomach was a mountain of muscle, he was very much _not_ her type.

Plus... Karasuma was acting weird. And that was just weird. Normally he was stoic or occasionally angry—not this quiet disgruntlement. That sent alarm bells off all on its own.

“Are you alright, Karasuma?”

He blinked away from watching them play soccer and over to her. “I’m fine.”

Irina eyed how tense his shoulders were and debated asking if he wanted help loosening up—before deciding against it. It didn’t seem… _right_ to do it right now. “If… you are sure.”

“I am,” he huffed and turned away. Irina watched him go. It was almost like he was jealous—which would have been kind of cute if it wasn’t for the fake down the stairs.

Well… it wasn’t her job to push.

Even if his bragging later on annoyed the _hell_ out of her.

 

“Are you _really_ fine with this Karasuma?” she asked the next day, unable to _not_ say something with this… whatever it was. The more she had watched him interact with the brats the more sure she became that something was off. He was _too_ friendly with them. “His Dad-thing comes across as… awfully forced,” she went with. She hadn’t had any real evidence for anything beyond that, and anyway—Karasuma hadn’t asked her opinion. “Plus, Karma is already cutting his class entirely.”

“We were in the Airborne Brigade together,” he explained, “and I understand he’s considered a far better instructor than I.”

Irina hummed unconvinced at that, her gaze going back to the door. She didn’t see how anyone could train the kids better than Karasuma had in this time frame—not and still keep it fun and age appropriate. He was honestly _good_ at that.

Had she been farther along in her training at three month with Lovro—it was hard to tell. He had trained her differently—had never bothered to train her in combat past a certain point to assure her muscle memory wouldn’t make her targets wary—but his training had also been…

Well it hadn’t been _fun_ at least, not usually. It had been serious work that had taken up much of her day all centered on getting her as ready as soon as possible.

A year. She had become a successful assassin in a year—less than one really.

Karasuma clicked around on his laptop pulling her from her thoughts. “He’s got a good grip on his student’s hearts. That ought to go far in training.” He clicked some more. “Maybe I was going about this the wrong way. Rather than drawing a line and connecting to them as professionals, perhaps his method of relating to them like a family would…” He trailed off.

Irina considered that. She knew far well that the kids would like if he opened up a little with them—goofed off with them or came on snack runs with them after school. She wasn’t sure if that was normal behavior for students and teachers—but she knew they wanted it. Especially Kurahashi with that cute little crush she thought she was hiding.

But she didn’t see how him denying that—since he always did it with kindness—had weakened their training any either.

And it was just odd seeing Karasuma so uncertain. Unsure.

She didn’t like it.

Karasuma made a noise of surprise and Irina glanced over just in time for him to dash from his chair and through the door. She stumbled in his wake, confused, and looked to his screen which he’d uncharacteristically had left open and logged on.

What she saw made her blood run cold.

 

She had been right. He was a creep. A _complete_ creep. The kind of creep that got off on afflicting pain on those weaker—and on power rushes.

So generally the kind of creep she was hired to kill.

She kind of wished she was here to kill him.

Kanzaki’s face was already bruising and she was sure Maehara’s stomach was as well.

But worst of all Karasuma had backed down, trekking back to the stairs like a kicked puppy. An _angry_ kicked puppy but still one who was doing as he was told.

Certainty there was some kind of children protection laws in this country to—oh who was she kidding. She’d started her training at _twelve_ —they were already training these kids to _kill_ their beloved teacher—law didn’t matter in this world they were in.

It still pissed her off though.

Especially that even the god damn _Octopus_ was putting up with it. Why should _he_ care about what the government could say—and he should be against the kids getting trained up to kill him anyway—none of that made any sense.

Honestly the men at this school were insane or useless. If that man struck another one of those brats she’d deal with him herself. _How_ yet she wasn’t sure—he seemed like an easy seduce—even if he’d been told about her which she wasn’t certain as he hadn’t given her the time of day—stroke his ego a bit with “approval” over his methods and he’d be easy to distract. He was a soldier, that much was for sure, but she hadn’t seen any of Karasuma’s infiltration intelligence or training yet. She could probably get a good dart into his neck with ease even if it would be dangerous being in his arms right after.

Of course she had no idea what to do afterwards. And it would probably get her yelled at—likely even removed from the school—and really why did she care that much, the guys new schedule meant less classes for her to teach and more time to focus on killing the Octopus and…

What was she kidding.

She cared.

She cared because it was pointless. She cared because they were kids. Normal kids. The ones who hadn’t breathed in the mist of blood and still had innocent faces and weren’t ready for this kind of thing. She cared because all this stupid guy would do was turn the few who survived into soldiers—not assassins. She cared…

Well she cared because they were brats… but they were _her_ brats dammit.

 

The look on the bastard’s face as Karasuma caught his hand had been satisfying. What had come after, much less so.

There was no chance any of those kids—heck even if Karma had been here—could take down that man. Karasuma _had_ to know that.

“If this doesn’t work, I distract him tonight, get him somewhere alone, and then you leave him in the artic,” Irina grumbled as she watched Karasuma glance over all the kids in front of him. “Presuming you don’t kill him for beating up the brat.”

“My, Irina-sensei, it’s nice to see how much you care!”

She grunted, her face warming slightly, but she only crossed her arms. “I don’t. It’s just his new schedule means I can’t drag the brats into carrying my bags as I shop.”

“You mean you optional English conversation outings—where yes, you shop, but you converses entirely in English and consistently correct them on odd sounding phrases of word and conversation?” he asked with his green smug look. “And also gossip about other people and their actions through people watching—helping them pick up on how to cold read people?”

“Shut it—look he’s choosing… Nagisa? Is he _asking_ the poor brat to _die_?”

The Octopus snickered and she knew she was missing something. “At first glance it looks that way, yes. But just watch… you’ll see.”

And see she did. Nagisa’s honestly faultless control of his bloodlust—matched with his near flawless execution of his attack left her speechless. It was then she realized what Karasuma and the Octopus must have seen.

Nagisa had natural talent in assassination. In particular, infiltration style assassinations—completely controlling his killing intent until the last final moment—it was a vital skill.

She needed to focus more on that boy—she could teach him a lot if he already naturally could handle that.

But that could be handled later—Takaoka wasn’t the type of man to take that well. She approached as the Octopus chewed down on the knife, grumbling about safety, and the kids clambered around Nagisa in celebrations.

She got there just in time for Takaoka to snap.

“If we fought again we’d lose for sure,” Nagisa told the towering man rather fearlessly. “But what is plain to see is that Korosensei is our Classroom Teacher, and Karasuma-sensei out Training Instructor. And that’s final. You and your forced father figure role don’t come across as half as warm as Karasuma-sensei and his professionalism. We are grateful you tried to make us stronger, but I’m sorry. Please leave.”

It was a good speech, but there was one problem, “What am I then?” she asked Takebayashi and Okajima.

“You’re our Bitch,” Takebayashi said earnestly.

Irina growled. And here she had been worried about the brats. So ungrateful. _Why_ did she even bother?

“You think I’m just going to take that from a little punk—” Takaoka snarled and lunged. Irina winced but before she could even finish the movement Karasuma was there with a perfectly placed elbow to take advantage of the bigger man’s speed.

He fell to the ground. The students stared in awe. Frankly she was feeling some of that herself.

He was fast. That had been extremely… impressive… _hot_ …

She gulped and she wasn’t even sure why.

 

The principle chased the creep away—surprisingly on their side for once—and Karasuma was convinced to join them and cover an afternoon snack.

“Why do you think you get an award,” Karasuma drawled halfway down the mountain. “You did less than the target.”

Irina humped. “Like you wouldn’t have been pissed if I’d tried to get involved. ‘Irina, this is a governmental matter, and your interference had caused significant issue.’ Bah.”

He nodded his head slightly conceding the point. That should have been the end of it if it hadn’t been for the god damned Octopus. He came from behind and grasped her in a big octohug. She attempted to kick him in the groin—he seemed pervy enough to still have one after all.

“Now, now, let’s be fair, the two of us _were_ making plans should Nagisa have more trouble than expected.”

She kicked towards his presumed crotch harder. “ _Us_ — _I’m_ the only one who—” Blushing she realized she’d been caught and she growled. “Oh shut it and let me go!”

“You were making plans?” Karasuma asked, seeming vaguely interested. Irina’s face burned.

“It was nothing...”

“Irina suggested that she would distract him once there were no witness and I could then drop him off in the artic,” the Octopus said, his face going green in smugness even as he freed her.

She _hated_ that stupid octopus.

She growled in embarrassment, and shoved Karasuma’s wallet into his chest. “It was just sarcasm,” she grumbled knowing that was only half true before she stormed on ahead—done with men for now.

“She cares,” she heard the Octopus explain. She rolled her eyes. Karasuma wasn’t that dense to need that written out as embarrassing as it was.

She’d thought only to soon be corrected.

 

“I would do anything to make class E’s grades fail. That’s you opinion of me I take it?”

“Of course not,” Irina said flipping her hair. She’d been surprised when Karasuma had asked her to join him to meet with the principle—but she knew her role to a tee. “But the hardass next to me had been quite vocal in his doubts.”

“I commend you for coming straight to me with your worries, but I assure you. I will not do a thing and furthermore—” He stood and approached his window watching the soccer team practice out on the field. “This school also fosters student independence. After all, what determines their grades is not the school, but the students themselves.”

They left after that. Irina sighed. “He is definitely hinting at something, with all that ‘student independence’ crap.”

“Pretty much, but at least it seems he won’t be using any tricks that border on injustice this time.”

Irina hummed in agreement. The mood after the midterms had been dreadfully sullen.

“Well, it looks like… the classes’ grades will be directly effecting the assassination this time, so I might just lend a hand.” She grinned at him. “Leave Sex Ed to me,” her grin turned coy and she waggled her eyebrows. “Why don’t we go study in that classroom over there?”

“What the hell happened to teaching English,” he grumbled.

She sighed as he strode on ahead in annoyance, a pang of disappointment slowing her walk. Why had it been bothering her so much lately when he refused—it was like she was taking it personally? Sure… it was a bit of a sting to her pride when she failed—but it wasn’t if she was trying _that_ hard. She had plenty of more advanced seduction techniques she hadn’t even slightly used yet. If she was so annoyed why hadn’t she used those?

But… it didn’t feel _right_ to use them. Maybe because this wasn’t her target—but really she’d used them on random one night stands and brief flings plenty of times with no problems. It was how she stayed in good practice.

Maybe it was because for once it was a coworker of sorts—one that wasn’t a target. Perhaps… it could get awkward she supposed.

But that didn’t feel right either.

He wasn’t _that_ hot.

…

Okay, maybe that was a lie, but still she was better than that—to moon over a hot ass she couldn’t snatch.

She sighed. Maybe she’d feel better once she had some time to herself. Summer vacation was coming up and it would be the perfect time. Maybe she’d go back to France for a bit, or America.

That would be nice.

 

“I’m coming to?” Irina’s eyes went wide as she took a look at the brochure. Sure it wasn’t _that_ exciting. She’d heard a lot about the one hotel on the cliff but they weren’t even staying there. Nonetheless she hadn’t really realized she’d get invited. It made her feel warm.

“Of course—should the student’s manage it, it will be the place of our next main assassination attempt,” Karasuma told her.

Oh. Right. She would go because she was part of the assassination.

Oh well, she’d knew that already. Why else would she be invited?

“I just… didn’t realize the teachers got invited…” she offered as a weak excuse.

“The students would need chaperons.”

“Of course…”

Still some time on the beach would be fun. And it was only a long weekend long. She’d get the chance to go on her own proper vacation after that.

And yet… why did she still feel a bit disappointed?

 


	4. Vacation Time

She was proud of those brats. They pulled their trick off perfectly and now the Octopus was in a serious situation.

She liked to think she’d helped with that—teaching them how to manipulate people was one of her goals. And if the Octopus was right—those delinquents had done a damn good job getting a 100 on the exam.

Even if it was a bit odd that the Octopus was letting them get away with it—but hey, she wasn’t about to complain.

She had other things to complain about—like why she’d been left behind! _Again!_

“Why are _we_ stuck watching the classroom,” Irina sighed.

“Well… Karasuma is going to the ceremony so…”

“I’m babysitting an Octopus,” Irina grumbled.

“I’m babysitting a Bitch,” the Octopus corrected. Irina stabbed at him once and he giggled as he dodged.

 

“Karasuma! The fake Ritsu is creeping me out so much that I can’t concentrate!” Sugaya whined as Nise got into her place. Karasuma sighed.

“ _Please_ , just bear with it. She is necessary to hide the fact that Ritsu is actually a machine. She’s my supervisors’ daughter, she’s tightlipped and won’t ask questions.” He glanced over at the girl in question—based on how she had been when he first met her he could see she was trying too hard and it was making things uncomfortable, but it was necessary.

“I sat next to her at the exams to… She creeped me out so much I got last in the class.” Sugaya mumbled before making his way back in place. Karasuma watched him go almost amused. Last in the class perhaps—but even he had been in the middle of the pack.

He was proud of these kids. They had done well.

 

Irina didn’t want to admit it but… she’d been rather _bored_ since school ended. The kids had been given a week to do their own thing before gathering together to train for the trip—and with that she had been as well…

And honestly she should have been delighted by that—a vacation away from the droll of teaching but… she _hadn’t_ been.

Shopping wasn’t as fun without a small horde of minions following her around carrying her bags and listening to whatever she wanted to say.

True they were listening to improve their English… but they were _still_ listening.

And making snarky comments back—but they’ve become increasingly more creative…and even funny.

She could have gone and explored Japan’s high life—found a fling or two to play with—but that idea had gone sour as well. Plus… she was starting to really go through her money after months of limited new income—a teacher’s salary really wasn’t that exciting. She still had plenty saved up—but her hotel wasn’t cheap and she still wanted to go somewhere nice once this entire trip was done with.

So for the most part she had found herself lingering in her hotel, watching dramas in a variety of languages, and reading cheap romance books.

It had gotten a bit sad—and lonely—which was even sadder.

She spent most of her life like this—why be upset now?

Almost as sad as how happy she was to trudge back up that mountain and see those kids.

God—she needed to get a life, if _this_ was the highlight of her week.

At least she had a cute new outfit to show off.

“My, my, look at you Brats,” she greeted as she entered the field. “You must be training hard to be dripping with that much sweat.”

“Shouldn’t you be training too, Bitch-Sensei?” Mimura asked dryly. “Your knife and gunplay is not _that_ much better than ours.”

She hmphed. What did they know of her skills? She had never shown them to them in full. “Adults are cunning—I’ll just go along with your plan and take all the good parts.”

Along with several backup plans. That had been the other thing she’d been doing all week. Figuring out all the places where the brats plan was most likely to go wrong and find out how she could sneak in there and get the kill anyway.

“Hohoo, _so_ admirable of you Irina…”

She froze, a shiver going down her spine, before turning astonished. “Gospodine Lovro!”

What was he doing here? He wasn’t here to take her away again was he? She hadn’t gotten much progress done but dammit this target was a pain in the ass!

Karasuma was standing next to him looking unimpressed as always. “He is here as a special instructor for summer vacation. He’s here to give us insight on our plan from a pro.”

Irina bristled a little about that. She was a pro to! But… she also knew she was nothing compared to Lovro’s experience… so she couldn’t get _to_ upset…

“Rest one day and your body will forget to kill!” he snapped. “Go change your clothes or I’m taking you out of here!”

“R-right,” she turned and fled to the school house bristling with adrenalin. What a change—it had been years since she’d actually trained under him—let alone in combat. He’d always considered that one of her least important skills…

Had something changed with the old man?

All she had to wear at the school was her sweats and hoodie she used when she was working alone at night. She liked it, it was soft and comfortable—the kind of thing she lazed around in or trained in when she was sure she’d be alone… but she hated the idea of being seen in it—it was so _ugh._

But she couldn’t be taken away. Not now. Not when they were _so_ close.

She awkwardly returned to the field, doing her best to ignore a few of the student’s whisperings.

“You’re worried about our firepower?”

“Just the opposite. Those two in particular are outstanding.” Was the first thing she heard as she eased back close. “Chiba Ryunosuke. He excels at special calculations. As a long distant sniper, he’s second to none. While Hayami Rinka has a nice balance of dexterous fingers and kinetic visual acuity. She’s a soldier who is well equipped to take down a moving target…”

“Neither is very assertive—

“They’re the professional type; their results do the talking. Hmm. I want them for my own students.”

Irina glanced up at that, her stomach dropping as she looked at the two in question as the men continued to talk. The idea that those two… that _any_ of these kids could end up a students of Lovro… the idea that any of these kids might end up _actually_ falling into the assassin life… it didn’t sit well with her.

They had innocent faces… normally that annoyed her… but she didn’t want to see them _lose_ them either.

And under Lovro… you lost it fast… if you even still had them to start.

 

Lovro showed all the experience he had in training others. Karasuma greatly respected his abilities in this regard—and was pleased to have his help.

Pleased to have the man’s approval over how he had trained them such far as well.

But something still felt a bit off.

It was Irina he decided, eyeing the woman who had awkwardly set up a target on the other side of the field away from the students—seeming embarrassed to be seen like this for whatever reason. She had no trouble hitting her target—and he wasn’t really surprised by that, she _was_ Lovro’s student—but she did seem to be too distracted to be putting any real effort in it. She kept glancing over at Lovro and the students.

At first he wondered if she was jealous—he was her master after all and it seemed characteristic of the often immature assassin, but no… that wasn’t right. She didn’t look annoyed, or frustrated, or angry. She didn’t look like she was looking for Lovro’s approval or attention either.

Instead… she seemed uncomfortable… worried?

It put him on edge.

Why did she not like Lovro interacting with the students? She seemed to have nothing but respect for her master… if a bit of a cowed respect.

…

He’d keep a closer eye on them.

 

“Irina.”

“Gospodin…?” Irina turned to him. The kids had just been let go and were slowly gathering up their things and making their way back home. Meanwhile Irina was sore. She’d kept to training by herself at a distance, but she knew better than to half-ass it with Lovro here.

“You’ve been keeping up with you training.”

“Of course I have!” she snapped and then quieted with a wince. Lovro usually didn’t care if she got a bit snappy as long as she did as she was told—she thought he liked seeing some spunk and assertiveness but he’d also showed his disapproval as well in the past.

“You don’t train with the children?”

He didn’t see upset, just curious. Still Irina shifted, flipping the knife in her hand once. She didn’t have a truly good reason _not_ to train with them… truth be told Karasuma was far better with combat than her, and understandably so, and his training emphasized it a lot more than Lovro’s training had. In her fight to get good enough to get that stupid Octopus it wouldn’t have been the worst idea to take part more.

But she didn’t want to get to buff—that tended to intimidate men in a way that could be annoying. And training with the kids meant the Octopus would see her do it—she rather do it on her own time and…

It was kind of embarrassing… training with a bunch of fifteen year olds.

They would judge her—for being closer to their level than Karasuma’s despite it not being her specialty.

And Karasuma… he may as well.

“Not often…” she grimaced “Normally I avoid training where the Octopus is watching.”

He grunted, but didn’t seem to disapprove. “Show me your plans?”

“Huh?”

“You know what I mean—show me your backup plans you made—I taught you better to not have done so.”

Irina sighed and leaned against the tree. “Yeah… the first possible part their plan may fall apart is if he notice any of the preparations—so I’ve thought…”

 

“Hey? Where is everyone?”

Karasuma sighed, looked at Irina, and sighed again. That was not school-chaperon appropriate. “That person who just left was the last patron—Class E bought out the entire resort and the area around it for the weekend…”

“What! Why did you do that!” Irina scowled. “Why does my swimsuit debut always end up like this…”

Karasuma had gotten quite good at ignoring her rants, and instead looked down to the plan. This assassination plan was the biggest yet—with the most moving parts. Everything so far had been going smoothly.

Too smoothly.

“C’mon, Karasuma. I want to blow someone’s mind!” Irina continued, throwing an arm over his shoulder and poking his cheek. Just one thing to worry about—and if only it would be _serious_ for _one_ moment!

He turned around and picked her up. For a second she went blissfully silent, her eyes wide and flustered—almost entertainingly so—Then of course she grinned. “Oh Karasuma—being so assertive. Just because we are alone I didn’t think you would—AHH!”

She sputtered out of the surf and set him a death glare. “What was _that_ for?”

“You said before—that as a Pro Assassin your plans rarely go as planned.”

She glared at him for a second more, before sighing and pushing the soaked hair from her eyes. “Yes… with something as complicated as this, it’s bound to go wrong at least one or two times.” She flopped back down, finally looking serious. “Does it look like I’m just here having fun? Believe me— I’m gunning for my share of the spoils. When the Brats’ plan goes wrong, and a chance comes my way, I’m taking it. I won’t let it get away.”

Karasuma considered her, and then the horizon. He wasn’t sure he wanted to rely on any plan Irina set up. And he still couldn’t shake a bad feeling. Those hitman Lovro couldn’t get in contact with, problems developing in the MoD, and odd rumors about this island… He just hoped everything went smoothly.

 

Irina stayed in the surf until Karasuma was most of the way off the beach acting like she couldn’t give half a crap for his presence.

And as soon as he was out of earshot she flopped back into the water and groaned, splashing water onto her warm cheeks.

God—what the hell.

She hadn’t expected being picked up like that—as an assassin she should have dodged—And Karasuma was a giant asshole, he could have asked without the theatrics. _Drama king._

But… as soon as his strong arms had wrapped around her… she had frozen. For a moment her cheeks had warmed and her heart had flopped and turned—and worse of all she hadn’t been able to control and hide those reactions—not for a whole moment before she had went flirty to cover her mistake.

And the… the hurt as she had been thrown, not physically, but as a giant pang throughout her chest. The disappointment… the… the surge of sadness that it wasn’t what she had thought—that it was about as _opposite_ of that as it could be…

She had never felt that before and… oh, oh, god…

Was she starting too actually _like_ Karasuma?

Ridiculous—completely ridiculous. It was just surprise—and lack of practice—she hadn’t truly had a fling in months now after all—it was _nothing._

Even if she could feel romantic feelings for someone—and she had doubted that for many years—it wouldn’t be Karasuma. Stern, non-nonsense, unfun Karasuma. A giant square that couldn’t relax and lived for his work. She’d fall for... for… someone who would wait on her hand and foot—who would buy expensive gifts for her—who would be up for a roll in the sheets whenever she was.

Not someone who barely tolerated her.

He was hot—and that was his _only_ saving grace—and she wasn’t _that_ shallow dammit!

It was a ridiculous idea. There must have been something odd in the air here. That’s all.

But god did her heart hurt…

She’d must have eaten something off—that had to be it. Heartburn…

 

As she suspected the kids plan didn’t work.

But… the fact they had managed to get as far as they did—the plan only failing at the very end do to an unknown ability of the Octopus…

She’d underestimated the brats. She’d taken one look at the plan and seen a complicated—bound to go wrong just from to many moving parts—mess and yet they had pulled it off perfectly.

Not that it mattered. Not to the situation—not only was he alive, he was invincible for the next twenty-four hours. Not for the kids—no matter how much they were praised by the Octopus they were devastated—all their hard work for nothing, or at least as far as they could see—sluggish and quiet. Not for Karasuma—she had never seen him so agitated for more than a brief moment. Not for her—she hadn’t gotten her chance to slide in and save the day—the places where she thought the kids plan would go wrong and leave an opening instead went flawlessly—and then at the end he was invincible.

It was a solemn walk back to the resort. Irina trailed behind the kids—watching as they slowly made their way out of the water, as Karasuma’s minions came to wheel Ritsu back, as they dried and headed to land, quietly keeping count until all of them were on their way.

There was not a single smile among them. Even Karma’s mischief had dimmed as soon as Karasuma had swiped the Octopus away.

It didn’t sit right with her. She had never seen them so dim and downtrodden before.

She didn’t like it.

 

They should have known something like this would have happened.

The entire hitman world knew about the Octopus and his bounty. That meant everyone from her and Red-eye to the darkest, most twisted killers. With money like that on the line in this world ethics and morals were long disregarded.

Of course the kids would end up as collateral damage.

And she could do nothing but watch… she’d… she’d never helped someone who was ill before. She had no idea what to do.

“But you know teach… you seem pretty skilled so you might be kind of dangerous, huh?” Karasuma grimaced and Irina sighed, her eyes drifting to the cameras. “How about… of the students standing… you have the shortest boy and shortest girl being it here.”

Nagisa and Kayano. Nagisa was far more capable than he looked but he still was just an inexperienced boy. Kayano was better than the average child certainly but she hadn’t distinguished herself much at all. The speaker had used _we_ too often to be alone as well. They would easily be outmatched—and there was no guarantee they would return unharmed—or at all.

No guarantee that this cure even existed.

Some people became assassins not for the money—but for the love of killing. The most dangerous were the ones who didn’t even need a challenge to satisfy themselves. They often got vilified and corralled by the rest of the community eventually—They had a tendency to be messy and risk exposing everyone—but she knew some were still out there—and more always tried to join.

The Octopus… he’d be able to deal with this in a moment… if they hadn’t pushed him to this form.

The phone clicked as the enemy hung up. Karasuma growled and slammed the Octopus onto the table, glaring at the floorboards. Helpless.

Irina rather felt the same.

 

He had never expected that an outside force would come into the picture at this point.

He’d been naive. The entire underground likely knew of the bounty by now—even just from word of mouth—and a bounty this high…

This was his fault. He should have protected the students better. This was the second time they’ve come into direct danger from an assassination attempt—and at least last time it had been under the assumption their teacher would save them.

“It’s true then—the rumors about this island,” he retorted to his agent’s news. At the kids’ questioning eyes he sighed. “I’ve heard from a contact in the police force that this island is known as ‘demon island’ to some. The resorts down here are legitimate businesses but… the hotel on the cliff.” He looked up at it. Its lights were a beacon in the dark sky. “Is known to be a meeting place for people in the underground and those who finance them… all secured by well-trained guards and a very strict privacy policy…”

Irina looked away at his words. He wondered if she had known that. He wondered if she would have told him the truth if he had asked.

He should have asked.

He should have taken the rumors more seriously.

“They have contacts high in the government,” he admitted with pain and frustration. “So the police can’t touch the heedlessly…”

The kids started arguing—worry filling every word—and Karasuma couldn’t blame them. And yet he was frozen. There didn’t seem to be a choice but to do as they demanded—but there was the risk they two would be taken hostage—and if they also took the cure… that would be worse case scenario.

Perhaps—he doubted whoever was calling the shots truly could handle the Target. His plan so far—had he not been immobilized—seemed unlikely to have worked. They underestimated him. If the kids were taken hostage along with the cure—once the target reformed he could save them and the cure. That should be in enough time to save the others.

If there was a cure— _no_ , he couldn’t worry about that. Not yet.

But they only had an hour to do this. Could he really ask those two to risk their lives?

“There is another option!” The Octopus alerted throwing him from his thoughts. “Ritsu is done with the preparations I’ve asked for—so could all the healthy people come here, please!”

Despite his misgivings, Karasuma listened.

He may be the target but—that wasn’t important right now.

 

Irina wasn’t convinced by this plan. She hadn’t been convinced when he said it and she was even less convinced as she stared up at the sheer cliff wall.

They were kids. Smart kids. Clever kids. Well-trained kids but… they were still _kids_.

These people had real guns. Real knives. Not the rubber BBs and knives they were used to. These people would unlikely be bothered in the slightest to shoot at kids.

And if they messed up just once well… it would be over for the other half of them—and honestly, quite possible over for them all.

The problem she didn’t know what else to do. If the enemy had cameras on them they would know who she was. It would be difficult to get in herself—but perhaps not impossible. She had her makeup with her—she could contour her face enough that maybe she could manage. If she came in a bit before the brats… perhaps she could at least be nearby.

“That… sounds… hard…” Some of the kids mumbled.

“They’ll plummet to their deaths before they reach the hotel,” Irina told Karasuma as he still hesitated. She actually felt bad for him—he was more open at the moment than she had ever seen and she could see brief flashes of fear and despair and worry flash through his eyes—but also that fierce anger she had occasionally caught a glimpse of before. These kids were his responsibility and someone had hurt them. At any other time that person would already be cowed underfoot she was sure.

She was about to offer her replacement plan when tumbling rocks distracted both of them.

“I mean—the ledge isn’t the problem—that’s a piece of cake!” Isogai said easily already thirty feet above. Irina couldn’t help but gape as her eyes darted to each brat, all easily and effortlessly clinging to the rock face like it was a jungle gym.

“Especially compared to our normal training,” Okano agreed.

“But we haven’t practiced fighting an unknown enemy in an unknown hotel,” Isogai continued. “So, Karasuma-sensei, it won’t be easy but... could you be our commander?”

Irina sighed as she saw the confliction in his eyes harden into resolve, shelving her plan for the backburner. She still wasn’t really convinced about this plan but… she looked up at the students as they all pulled out their phones, utterly dedicated to memorizing the map in three minutes.

Maybe they could do it.

Only one problem… how was _she_ getting up there?

 

Irina glared at Karasuma’s back as she was roughly shouldered off as soon as he pulled them over the cliff side. It wasn’t _her_ fault she couldn’t have made it up alone—she was an undercover infiltrator not a stealth one. Climbing cliffs wasn’t part of her skill set—not ones as sheer and tall as this one.

…

Maybe she should have joined in on some of Karasuma’s training. Some of the kids were barely winded after all that.

But even then, it would have destroyed her dress and heels—and they were still one of her best asset to help with all this. If you looked the part people were far less likely to notice you weren’t supposed to be there.

And by damn, she looked the part.

And well… it may not have been his arms but… his back was really nice too—all flexed as he climbed… it had gotten her a bit flustered and then she had panicked and slackened her arms almost falling and then she had tried to cover it up by rambling nonsense complaints.

She doubted he had noticed but…

Now was _not_ the time. She shook her head to clear it, carefully straightened her hair, and followed them inside.

 

_Dammit._ Security was worse that they had expected—perhaps greater because of the guest on the top floor—and already they were faced with a problem.

Getting all the kids to the staircase would either take too long or be too easy to spot. Taking only a few already would leave them even more vastly unpowered. If he went alone he had some options but he didn’t like the idea of leaving them alone here—so easy to be caught…

“What’s the hold up?” Irina asked from behind, an empty wine glass in hand that he had no idea where she had found it. “Just walk through casually.”

Karasuma blinked startled by the suggestion. What was she thinking? Several of the students growled in frustration.

“Do you not understand what’s going on here Bitch-sensei?”

“How are we supposed to get through all that security?”

Irina sighed and peered over his shoulder. “Just act casual.” She told them before walking out fearlessly. He almost grabbed her but then stopped last second.

A few steps in she stumbled, and then again, before running into the largest guard on this side of the room. He heard a few of the students’ gasp, but as she looked up at him, shakily brushing the hair from her eyes, he remembered.

Irina was a nuisance, frustrating, immature…

But she was also a _pro_ assassin.

She was supposed to be one of the best honeypots in the world.

This situation here—this was easy for her. This is what she was _meant_ for.

“Wow,” he heard one of the students say as she stumbled to the piano. “After all those heavy handed attempts she tries on Karasuma-sensei I forgot she was supposed to be _good_ at this stuff.”

“How come you think she never acts like that with him?”

“I dunno…”

Karasuma sighed and shook his head. It was because she liked playing around with him for a laugh. Still, he had to admit as he glanced back up to see her effortlessly stop someone from leaving. He had forgotten as well—how _good_ she was supposed to be. Her skills were vastly different from his—his infiltration experience centered in breaking and entry, and force. Undercover work and manipulation—they weren’t something he’d ever really done before.

Seeing her in her element like this… was almost fascinating.

He should really make better use of her. His attempt to send her back to the resort earlier had been foolhardy—if she had gone, if she hadn’t insisted, they would already have failed.

Her fingers hit the keys. Instantly the entire rooms—the students, the guards, the patrons were on her, transfixed. For a moment he was to, watching her play and move, before he snapped out of it.

“She’s… she’s freaking good!” Kumira breathed.

“It’s the Phantastic Impromptu piece, isn’t it? Beyond her obvious skill—she also knows all too well how to charm, how to use her wiles, using her whole body in such a bewitching way as she plays: An aural seduction,” the Target explained.

She stopped abruptly, causing some of the students to jump, and raised her voice. “Oh! Don’t watch from so far away. Come closer and listen. I want you to critique me,” she widened her eyes in the guards guarding the emergency exits direction. “And _punish_ me if I should do badly.”

They stumbled away from their post like lovesick fools. She turned back to the seat and before she started again he caught some hand signals down by her legs.

_I’ll buy you twenty minute. Go._

They went.

“We all got through safely!” Kayano cheered quietly.

“And wasn’t Bitch-sensei something,” Sugaya agreed. “Being able to play like that—and with her nails.”

“She never said anything about being able to play,” Isogai wondered.

Karasuma looked over the kids and their wonder before starting up the stairs. “There is more to her than what you see every day. The better the assassin, the broader her skillset. The woman who has been tasked with teaching you conversation skills is arguably the best honeypot in the world.”

It felt almost hypocritical telling the kids that—having near forgotten himself—but it was best for them to realize as he had.

 

Karasuma was exhausted.

He couldn’t remember being as exhausted as he was. Even in boot camp he had never been this exhausted. This emotionally drained and physically weak. His body was still shaking off the last effects of the gas and even as his facilities returned they were left fatigued.

And everything that had happened—the danger to the students—poison, live firefight, a death match—and he all but helpless to do anything but watch. He had never been so stressed and terrified either.

He wasn’t sure what he would have done if one of the students had died.

He was getting too attached to everything. Things were getting more serious. He had to take it as seriously as well.

He let his guard down to much—and the children had suffered for it as much as they had vastly passed his estimations of their abilities and mental fortitude.

He had to do better. For this mission and for them.

Heels on tile signified the last of their party returning and he turned tiredly to her.

“Well you look like a wreck,” she mused with a slight smile. “But I see thing went well?”

He grunted but nodded as the last thread of stress finally relaxed at seeing she too had escaped the hotel unharmed. He had been concerned leaving her behind—but there had been no way they could have gone back downstairs to fetch her—nor could he had justified putting the students through that.

He paused and considered the last hour and his realizations.

“Irina… thank you for your help.”

“Of course… I can’t claim the prize if someone else does,” she said simply, but Karasuma could see her eyes were on the students as they were tended and her face was a bit pink. “I’m exhausted,” she said suddenly with a yawn that seemed a bit over dramatic. “I think I’m heading to bed.”

He grunted at her—jealous—knowing no matter how exhausted he was he had a long night ahead of him.

Irina didn’t get far—a few more clicks of her heels and Yada’s head popped up and she let out a cheer. “Bitch-sensei, you’re okay!”

“Of course I’m okay,” she laughed a bit haughtily. “That was hardly work at all.”

The kids that could stand crowded around her and began to lure her to the ones who still couldn’t— chatting about what happened, and praising her piano skills all at once. For a moment the honest bafflement and wonder that shot across her face was amusing as it was humanizing before her haughty look returned and she attempted to brush off the compliments.

Karasuma huffed a tired laugh and pulled out his phone.

 

Despite her words she didn’t actually go to sleep. Most of the students, ill or not, had all but collapsed in their rooms once the adrenalin had worn off and the medicine was administered—but a few had been understandably to wound to do that. He’d only gotten brief glimpses between his calls and running around to prepare for their next attempt, but each time he saw her at a table or couch with a slowly dwindling group of kids—talking and even laughing a little bit.

By the time he was finally done and could rest for a few hours it was almost dawn and she was the only one left in the dining room, sitting alone at the bar nursing some kind of liquor.

“I thought you were tired?”

She hummed at his approach. “I guess not.”

He stared at the unstaffed bar—tempted—before thinking better of it. He hadn’t eaten since dinner and he would need to be awake in a few hours to field more calls—if he got _that_ much.

“I heard what happened,” she said and took a sip. “Impressive.”

He grunted, despite his exhaustion, and sat beside her. “The children, yes, they far passed my expectations.”

She hummed. “Them to—certainly—but you withstood one of Smog’s gasses— _very_ impressive.”

He frowned. “You know him?”

“I know all three of those idiots,” she sighed and took another sip. “They are some of Lovro’s other students—I imagine they were the ones he couldn’t reach. If I had known it was them, I could have given you Intel at least—unfortunately…”

“We didn’t know.” He agreed rubbing the back of his head. His mind swirling with all he had to get done today—tomorrow—in the next six months.

“Go to sleep, Karasuma, you look like your about to pass out.” She smirked at him. “And if you need help relaxing…”

He huffed and stood. Even now she had to be like this. “Goodnight, Irina.”

“Yeah…” her smile softened, almost looking sad but he was pretty sure he was just too tired to properly read it. “Good morning, Karasuma.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, Karasuma has joined Irina in Capitalizing Octopus or Target when thinking or talking about Korosensei after his advice that happened off screen last chapter (The one that happened in the manga/anime)


	5. Dinner Time

Unsurprisingly Karasuma’s rushed attempt to kill the Octopus as he reemerged failed.

Disappointment flooded him even though he had expected as much. The weight of six months in and little to show for it hitting him suddenly and fully—as well as pure exhaustion. He’d only managed an hour before his phone had been ringing. He knew it had been too good to be true.

At least now perhaps he could sleep for a while.

Of course that would be too good to be true as well.

 

Irina had done what everyone had expected of her—keeping to herself as she sunbathed in her new swimsuit—mourning the lack of admirers aside—and reading some new fashion magazines. She stayed out of Karasuma’s and his minion’s way so she was left alone.

Which was good because… she had a _lot_ to think about.

She had to… figure out… Karasuma.

Because it helped no one, let alone herself, if she didn’t figure this out… it was messing with her composure—messing with her skills she was so proud of…

And… after seeing how he reacted to the brats’ peril—him in action leading the charge—the feel of his muscles as he climbed so effortlessly despite her on his back—listening to the stories from the kids—of him stumbling forward pumped full of enough anesthesia to knock out an elephant, of his determination and protectiveness, of his description of her as a hit-woman…

She had thought he had totally dismissed her, barely tolerated her… to hear he did believe she was capable was… well…

It made her feel warm and fluttery and giddy inside… and she _liked_ that feeling as much as it terrified her.

The fear, the desperation, the protectiveness, and the pride she caught in the few cracks of his composure. The care he quietly had for those children. The effort he put in last night and today trying to bring the Octopus down though they both knew it was rather unlikely to work.

He was… _more_ than just a square.

Not to get her wrong—he was still _mostly_ a square… just… not _only_ a square…

And…

She wasn’t sure but…

Maybe these feelings she’s been having the last few weeks if she really thought about it was…

Maybe she was…

Falling for him…

A bit…

Maybe…

And…

And she had no idea what to do now…

 

The test of courage was stupid. From what she could tell that Octopus had terrified himself from a few shadows so they had walked through an entirely normal cave.

Meaning she had no excuse for clinging to Karasuma like she had. Which made her both look super wimpy and annoyed Karasuma more than usual.

She was _so_ stupid—yelling at him when he pointed out the truth to hide her embarrassment—how was _that_ supposed to have helped!

All the brats seeing it to…

She hadn’t cared before… but now…

Ugh she felt like _such_ an idiot!

She sighed as he stomped away. Perhaps she shouldn’t have tried. He was _so_ tired already. She should have had allowed him to sneak away to nap once the Octopus was busy—told him to do it. He’d appreciate that far more.

But…

She didn’t know what to do.

Not really.

She had _liked_ touching him—and it felt stupid to admit it but… it was true.

But he didn’t seem interested at all. He never had.

Of course she would get… _feelings_ for the one guy she couldn’t touch.

He wouldn’t even look at her expression…

 

Her face burned as she was cornered on the terrace. At the look of their mischievous faces—not just the Octoperv, Karma, and Nakamura, but pretty much _all_ of them…

She knew she had been caught.

_Idiot!_

“Who would have guessed,” Kimura laughed. “And she’s usually able to get men eating out of the palm of her hands.”

“I guess she’s a late bloomer when it comes to her own love affairs,” Kayano agreed with a smile.

Irina huffed. Was she just here to be everyone entertainment and laughing stock. “Love? Don’t make me laugh,” she huffed, her stomach churning. Maybe she had… _feelings_ but… it wasn’t _love_ … right? It couldn’t be… just a silly crush.

Brats and Octopus’ just didn’t know the difference between them. That was all.

“So it’s _not_ love then?”

“No! I just can’t help it. That guy is the ultimate square among squares! And I… I have my _pride_ you know—I’m the _best_ at bringing men down—I tried to meet his innate challenge and get him to fall for me but… but instead I… I…”

She… she fell for him instead.

_Dammit!_

“I thought… she was kind of cute there… for a moment”

“I’m ashamed to admit it… but yeah…”

“What, why?” Irina snapped, glaring at the two boys before huffing and looking towards her lap once again. _Humiliating_ was what it was… for her to fall this low—and visibly enough for the bratss to notice. She had no idea what to do. And to her annoyance she found herself biting her thumb again—that stupid habit she just couldn’t break.

Olga had managed to stop her from biting her nails—nails were a vital seduction feature after all—with hotter and hotter hot sauces, bitter and sour powders, and mild poisons, but she had never been able to fully stop biting her thumb when she got really nervous or unsure.

It hit her from that alone how far down this hole she was.

“Leave it to us!”

Irina blinked up at Maehara with a confused blink. He gave her a winning grin and a thumbs up. “We’ll set the mood for you!”

“Yeah, we carry out a plan during dinner time. That would be perfect!” Yada agreed.

“A romantic dinner on a tropical island as the sun falls—so good!” Kurahashi, despite her cute little crush, smiled at her.

“You… you guys…” Her eyes felt heavy—watery. She… she still wasn’t sure of this… but…

They wanted to _help_ her. They wanted her to be _happy?_ She…

It was _so_ overwhelming.

The Octopus, her target, gleefully helping along was less overwhelming and kind of uncomfortable.

But even so…

“First thing first, Bitch-sensei, your fashion sense is a problem.”

Irina blinked. “Huh?”

“Yeah, yeah, too much skin is no good.”

“It’s not what a conservative Japanese guy like Karasuma-sensei would want.”

“Uh-huh, you need to attack with a more um… _clean_ look.”

“Clean… huh…” the brats had a point. One that she’d already thought about. She’d zipped up her vest for the cave and thought that with her shorts it was pretty decent—she hadn’t been showing _that_ much cleavage at least…

She didn’t have anything less revealing than that on hand. Despite what the kids thought of her—she _did_ have other types of clothing and styles—she was an undercover assassin after all—just at the moment they were all in various storage boxes around the world.  It was just that super-revealing was the type that usually worked so the one she’s gotten used to at a very young age—and she had had pretty good word that the Octoperv was a grade-A perv so why pack clothes she wouldn’t need.

“Yeah… like Kanzaki!” Nakamura explained. “If yesterday’s outfit is dry, could you lend it to her?”

“Of course!”

Irina grimaced—but the kids were so excited that she allowed them to push her into changing into the clothes she knew wouldn’t fit. The look of disappointment on their faces made her roll her eyes.

“Well whatever, we can’t fix the sexy,” Okano huffed. Irina’s lips quirked at the unintended compliment. “Compatibility is more important than boobs!”

Compatibility huh… Irina’s mood fell again… a Grade-A Governmental Square and an Independent Assassin Slut… _what_ compatibility. All that happened when they were together was either they sat around quietly or she annoyed him.

“Does anyone know Karasuma-sensei’s type?” The Octoperv asked.

“Well… he did seem to be really into that one Aslok commercial,” Yada shouted, hand held up like she was answering a question in class. “He said ‘now she’s a good one—expression, figure—both ideal—and there are three of them!”

“Ideal for battle maybe,” Maehara snorted.

“No—it’s reasonable to think Karasuma-sensei would like athletic combat-ready women,” Takebayashi mused. “And in that case… with her muscles… it’s hopeless.”

Irina growled but… he had a point. Maybe she should have taken more of Karasuma’s training sessions—maybe then he’d look at her—

What was she doing? She had _reasons_ not to bulk up. Most men were intimidated by muscle on a woman—to ruin that for the one guy who wasn’t!

_Idiot!_

“How about homemade food!” Okuda suggested nervously but earnestly. “The hotel food may be fancy but… we could still try with those two’s favorite foods!”

“I… I’ve never seen Karasuma-sensei eat anything but cup ramen and burgers when he has a choice,”  Maehara sighed. “Seeing the two of them alone eating that would be…”

“Ugh, there is nothing to take advantage of,” Nakamaru groaned flopping onto a desk chair. “I’m starting to think Karasuma-sensei is the problem.”

“Right! Right!” Irina agreed. “He’s just… such a… a square!”

“Well—let’s do what we can before dinner,” The Octoperv decided after a brief sob fest like the weirdo he was.

“Yeah!” The kids agreed. And again Irina was left watching them in wonder.

 

The shawl she’d been given—you would never see it in High Society. And the dinner arrangement—obviously amateur work—not to mention the lack of privacy but…

This was kind of fun. Those kids had put so much work into this—taking her shopping to find something they thought would work—arguing over each other as they did so—the boys working their butts off to cook a semi-formal meal—that actually tasted rather decent—and make this quaint little seating arrangement out here.

“I see you are looking better,” she said after the quiet went on a bit too long.

“Yes, I finally got some sleep,” he agreed.

And they had done it all for her. She didn’t fully understand why—but they had.

She loved those guys—just a little bit. They had really done it and… in return…she would try and bring this hardass down!

 

He knew something was up when the kids kicked him out of the dining room and he found Irina sitting outside alone at a table set up nicely with food that hadn’t been on the menu and in a style of clothes he’s never seen on her. He admittedly wasn’t entirely sure what the plan _was_. He knew Irina had been using him as a challenge for her seduction skills for months now—was this part of that? Had she charmed the kids into helping her?

After seeing her in action at the hotel he’d been reminded that Irina _was_ one of the best, something he’d forgotten with her childish actions and see-through seductions of the last few months he’d known her. She didn’t get to that level with only one trick—and while she had used a rather ham-fisted approach on the Octopus it had _worked_ —and she had no reason to fake around him or the kids.

Presuming that her childish antics wasn’t a mask on its own—then in which case changing to much would have been too much of a tell.

She had been doing much better as an English teacher and with the kids as much as she’d still been annoying him more often than not. He wondered if she was even good enough to falsify slow character growth.

He’d even considered that her flirty actions may have been more than they had seemed—that she’d been trying to make him—everyone—underestimate her.

He wondered how she was truly like, under all her masks.

But nonetheless he wouldn’t be surprised that if she _really_ tried, instead of the half-hearted efforts she’d done so far, that she could charm the kids into doing what she wanted—for the most part at least. It was one of his uncertainties of keeping her near them, but so far she had done nothing to them beyond yell empty threats that made the kids laugh.

And so far the dinner had been peaceful. Nice even. He was sure they were being watched by the students—as well as the giant octopus—who very well may have been the main mastermind behind this instead of Irina considering the cave earlier—but he’d already suspected _something_ was up.

They ate mostly in silence as the sun set, only occasionally talking about inane things. It was almost eerie honestly—Irina being so quiet. He had glanced up to see her smile as she took a bite of her food. So at least it _seemed_ like she was enjoying herself. The quiet was still unnerving though.

Was this a mask—or was this her without one. Would he ever know?

Probably not. Not with the time left. Not with the professionalism their job required.

“This trip has been exciting,” he ended up saying, just to break the weird silence. “And there was progress.”

Progress for all of them. The kids had grown a frankly surprising amount since they first trudged up that mountain. They _all_ had learned another trick of their target—and now could try and work around it. Irina seemed to getting along better with the kids, and he had come to recognize both how far the students have grown and been reminded just _why_ Irina had been sent to them in the first place.

As well as… as the fact they needed to get _serious_. He could only ask so much more of the children—they were children who truly had little choice but be involved and the last thing he wanted was for them to be in danger again, but he—and Irina—needed to double down on their efforts.

The world was at stake.

“I can see that the students have mastered the basics,” he continued placing his tea cup back on its plate. “Optimistically I think we can make the kill during second term if we work hard. Of course, you realize I will be leaning heavily on you.”

For a second she smiled at him—a softer smile than the seductive ones she tended to use, the one she occasionally let loose with the kids—and then it dropped, her eyebrows furrowing—going sad.

“Is… something wrong?” Had he said something insulting? He couldn’t imagine so. He’d thought it would be seen as a compliment as much as it was a reminder that she needed to be _serious_ for this to work. That she was _needed._

“Karasuma… do you know what it really means to kill… to end a life,” she said solemnly, as she snatched a steak knife and used it to cut her hair loose from its ponytail. He could only blink at her, confused and bewildered at the sudden change in mood. She let out a sad laugh and stood. “Well I really ruined the mood there…” she paused, looking at him briefly, her eyes uncomfortably open and vulnerable. He was frozen in uncertainty of what to do. “You sure made a mess,” she finally continued stepping beside him and taking the napkin from his collar. “Here… let me…”

She placed it to her mouth—moistening it?—and then played it against his, presumably wiping a drip he’d missed. She handed it back to him and started walking off towards the hotel. He watched her go.

“Oh… and Karasuma…” she said, turning to him slightly only a few steps away. “I… I like you.” With that she continued though she didn’t get far before she was accosted by the entire class and their annoying teacher. He sighed. Something had been up—and whatever Irina had been supposed to do she hadn’t. He supposed he should be thankful for that—who knew what those scarily creative kids and the nuisance had thought up.

But still, what was up with that napkin. A new assassin technique she was trying out. Changing the mood of a conversation suddenly and using the surprise to get close—using a relatively innocent if somewhat odd actions to get close enough for poison—poisoned lipstick of a good strength and it may do the trick—at least to make the assassination easier such as paralyzing the target, or making them drowsy. Impressive. And to be honest with himself, she would have gotten him if he was her target.

He didn’t think much more of it—the napkin or the question she had asked—even though he probably should have had.

Maybe he _could_ be a bit dense.

 

What was she _doing_ … enjoying amateur plating, dress-up in handmade clothing, relationships… this wasn’t her life. This was a job. An _act_.

The Octopus had to die. Everything they were doing was for that—nothing else. She was here for that. The kids were being trained for that. To kill their teacher they loved. To…

_He standing over her parents grinning, telling her how pretty she would look under him. The recoil causing her to tumble over, surprise shooting through her body even though she knew she had pulled the trigger. The man falling to the floor on top of her parents bleeding bodies. Voices outside—more of them—dragging his corpse with her to the tiny root cellar behind the pantry. Trying to avoid the blood and failing. Huddling against his cooling body as temperatures plummeted until finally the yelling and screams and shots had faded away…_

Kill…

She huffed and headed to the bar. Stealing a bottle or two of wine and spending the night in a steaming hot bath seemed like the best way to end this failure of a vacation.

She could have a _real_ one later—she had plenty of admirers to flutter her eyelashes at and get full paid rooms at the best hotels, or beach houses with nobody for miles. Yes. _That_ would be a vacation.

Silence. Solitude. Nothing complicated.

…

Maybe she should grab _three_ bottles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for the start of some negative character development! Yay! XD
> 
> Also Karasuma has the double wammy of being rather dense and overthinking things...


	6. Time to Trip

Summer break ended and school resumed. Irina stepped into the building for the first time in weeks face tanned and mind as solid as she could make it.

She’d gone to France after that disaster island. Spent time alone—on the beach—flirting with anyone who caught her interests—a few nights with guests—a few alone. A good time all around.

For the most part she didn’t think about anything.

Not the mission. Not the target. Not the kids. Not… Karasuma…

Mostly.

“Megu?”

“Bitch-sensei, you’re here early.” The girl in question smiled at her. ‘”Did you have a good summer break after… you know…?”

“I did—I went to France.” To her amusement a fit of jealousy and excitement passed over the girls face. “We can talk about it later if you like, but… I saw this while I was there.” She pulled the first volume of the French version of Hanadan out of her bag and with some hesitation handed it to the girl. “I thought you may like it—as a loan of course.”

Her eyes went wide. “Ohh—cool, thanks!” She grinned up at her. “And this is pretty worn down—you must have read this a lot.”

Irina blushed and huffed, pushing past the girl. “It’s a used copy,” she went with. “Now get to class.”

Katoka’s giggles followed her down the hall.

She was glad the girl seemed happy.

 

She was not spying.

Well, maybe a little

Watching Karasuma freerun so confidently and easily was… really allure—ah, _eye-catching._ He was extremely sure of himself and graceful with his movements.

She actually enjoyed free running. It was a useful skill to have no matter what kind of assassin you were—for quick entries and getaways—to hiding quickly when in places you weren’t supposed to be. She was nowhere near as good as Karasuma was—but she doubted she was better in anything physical beyond perhaps flexibility and well… the physical arts one got into in bed.

Granted she didn’t know for sure—despite how much she would like to know.

And really—it was only that… she had gotten carried away with the kids and their excitement. She just enjoyed the challenge—and the view—and hopefully the act.

So when she found out about the cops and robbers game she knew she had to join in.

This would be fun

 

Getting her head shoved and held down into the pool, only to come back up and see camo… hadn’t been fun.

Yes she’d been planning things that were a bit… okay a _lot_ … sexual, and quite a bit wrong but… he didn’t _have_ to shove her face into the water—panic over drowning wasn’t something she enjoyed. He could have just grabbed her. She hadn’t really thought she had half a chance of winning a strength battle with him to pull him down… or…

Or that he would stay even if she did.

But also…

She’d seen plenty of people in camo before in her years as an assassin. It was _nothing_ and yet…

For a moment—when all she could see was a camo covered arm around her throat, as she desperately caught her breath at the feet of her camo legged attacker—it wasn’t Karasuma she was seeing.

Thankfully he moved on with a curt, “you’re out,” so she was pretty sure he hadn’t noticed her slip. He wasn’t around to watch her slowly compose herself, her breath short and hands shaking.

She took the long way back to jail.

She stayed in jail even when Nagisa offered to get her out.

And avoided him for the rest of the day.

The next few nights weren’t very pleasant either.

But she got over it. She always did.

 

The sudden lingerie around the place was painfully obviously a ploy—it couldn’t be the Octoperv—he wasn’t _that_ stupid.

She also wasn’t surprised that Shiro returned.

Or that he’d used one of Karasuma’s minions to do his dirty work. The fact that Shiro was so obviously still supported by the government left a bad taste in her mouth.

She would give credit though—Karasuma’s anger over that guy’s involvement—despite it being a direct order from a “higher up official”—was true even if it was naïve.

What had he expected? Shiro was supported by the same government Karasuma worked for. This guy was just a dog waiting to be told what to do—and in the end…

Karasuma was the same.

 

Irina paused on her way back to the staff room from the bathroom and watched the girls laughing as they played a game of assassination badminton for their break. They seemed to be having fun.

She looked away and her hand found her anti-sensei knife… was it odd for her… a grown woman to… to _really_ want to join in.

She had never done anything like that under Lovro—and after match and match she had watched it was… kind of… alluring.

“Bitch-Sensei!”

She startled at Touko’s greeting, looking over to see the game paused. Hinano ran over with the ball in hand. “Bitch-sensei—do you want to play with us. We saw you had you knife!”

Ehhh—she was caught. Coughing she resheathed it. “I-I’m fine. You have your fun.”

“Ahh, c’mon, Bitch-sensei—it’s fun, promise!”

“Yeah c’mon, Bitch-sensei!” Rio yelled from the field.  Irina looked down at Hinano’s puppy dog eyes, at the other’s eager looks and felt her already weak resolve crumble.

“Well… I suppose I have some free time… I could show you something or another.”

“Yay!” Hinano grabbed her hand and pulled her to the field. Irina yelped in surprise. “Wait—let me kick my heels off first—!”

 

With one final click his email was sent and Karasuma groaned and took the rarity of an empty staff room to rub at his face.

He was tired.

He had just emailed his superior again—about the results of the students—about how they were still not enough—about how he was _trying._

And he was still getting: do more—train harder—in return.

It was getting harder and harder to keep up at least a façade of a normal middle school life for these kids. His superior didn’t care how anymore—he wanted results.

But he’d already accelerated the training significantly—bringing explosives and free running into play—it was dangerous but what could he do—plus the kids had shown a great potential on the island.

They would be okay.

_Right._

He wanted to do his best for those students—to give them as normal a life as he could. To allow them to be kids.

But he had a job to do and a fast approaching deadline with a devastating consequence for failure. He wanted to do what was best—but could he?

Did he even know what that was?

He was tried.

Laughing caught Karasuma’s attention as he stepped out of the office to make a call. Glancing out the window he caught the girls playing assassination badminton—and surprisingly Irina had seemed to have been roped it and gotten really competitive with it.

He watched the action for a moment—feeling conflicted. On one hand the children choosing to play the assassination games he had come up with in their free time could only be a good thing, and after the island he was always glad to see them smiling but…

Time was running out and watching Irina goof off with them instead of focus on her task frustrated him. He had thought perhaps after the island she would take this more seriously. He had wanted her to get along better with the students all those months ago—but lately he had felt she was getting _to_ close. That she was forgetting she was here as an assassin not a teacher—that she had fallen for her own cover. That if she kept on this path she’ll naturalize too much and lose her efficiency as a pro.

She would forget that they had a job to do.

Now wasn’t the time to play friends with the children. That could come after the target was dead if it must—but knowing her she would soon disappear. That was the life of an assassin after all.

He sighed and went to make his tenth call of the day.

 

He had been wrong.

The kids weren’t ready. They weren’t okay. He’d overestimated their maturity and given them too much ability without the proper mental state needed to use it wisely.

They had hurt someone—accidentally, but through doing something specifically forbidden.

And now—there was no time left but the students would be away from training for two weeks—half a month wasted.

Well… not wasted. The kids would learn a lesson—a good one—if there hadn’t been such a strict restraint he’d been happy with the plan but…

They didn’t have time for this.

He should have drilled this into their heads sooner—he should have shown examples of what could happen if they didn’t listen.

Maybe he should have installed some fear of him in them after all.

But he hadn’t. He had failed them and he had failed this mission.

He turned to return to the hospital room, clenching his hands to stop them from shaking.

 

“Did you learn something—from all of that?”

The brats went silent for a long moment before Nagisa spoke up. “I thought that becoming strong was for your own benefit. That acquiring the abilities to kill was for prestige and money. That acquiring knowledge was for grades… But the abilities we’ve acquired… I remembered it can be used for others to. That if we acquire the abilities to kill—we can save the whole world, if we acquire knowledge—we can use it to help someone else.”

Irina looked back down to her orange, a sad smile gracing her lips, remembering her reason to kill. Not money or prestige—though those were a nice bonus but…

She was nowhere near as pure as those kids—but she _was_ proud of them.

They would go far.

“We won’t use them recklessly anymore,” Okajima agreed. “Probably,” he added under his breath. Irina rolled her eyes.

“We’ll be careful—about everything,” Maehara nodded.

Yeah… she was proud of those kids.

 

To his frustration the kids ignored his suggestion that they save their new equipment until a key moment and instantly started showing it off to the Target. Through assassination attacks of course—but quick spur of the moments ones. It would have been more logical to hold off for a more thoroughly planned attack could be made.

Oh well. With that nuisance as a target he likely would have noticed the combat gear before they could make good use of it. And he didn’t really blame the kids. They were still kids who wanted to show off their new toy to their teacher.

He just worried… how long would they be able to give it their all—killing this teacher they loved?

 

She didn’t understand what was with the kids today but… she was _so_ popular.

Katoka was asking about France and her travels, Sumira and a few others wanted to hear her play piano since she’d missed out last time, Touka was poking her for French pickup lines, and some of the boys wanted to use her as a model.

Maybe they had… _missed_ her to?

After how lonely the last two weeks had been—with the kids doing their lesson off site, Karasuma quiet and even more of a workaholic than usual, unable to get in contact with Lovro to give a report…

She’d eventually gotten so uncomfortable about the silence—the feeling like she should be working too but with nothing really to do—it wasn’t as if she had been _given_ any work by Karasuma—that she’d snuck further into the mountain to train.

She’d been training a lot lately—beyond her efforts to broaden her skills sets—and her normal basic maintenance training—she’d found herself waking from nightmares semi-frequently and ended up doing knife drills in her room until she tired herself out enough to try to sleep again.

Karasuma did say mastering the basics was important.

So did Lovro but… well he hadn’t been the voice she had thought of when she came up with the idea…

_Sigh…_

The only constant presence had been that Octoperv. He’d even gotten her a cupcake for her birthday—one with smooth icing and a single piece of candy in the center—she had spent the rest of the day chasing him around the school and mountain for that but… it had been kind of fun?

It _shouldn’t_ have been fun. He was her target. She had to kill him, or at least guide the students into doing so. And yet…

His present had been the only one that had made her feel anything this year—if only a little bit. It wasn’t who she really wanted a gift from—even a stupid cheap gift from—but hell, the Octoperv also tried to hint to Karasuma that her birthday was coming—but either he really _was_ that dense or…

Or… he just really didn’t care…

Well! It didn’t matter what Karasuma thought. Let him not care. He was missing out. The students sure thought so!

 

“You want me to give it to her?” Karasuma blinked. “Wouldn’t she care more if it came from you?”

The kids gave him deadpan looks and he sighed. He wasn’t as dense as they apparently believed—but it would be so much easier to just ignore the issue entirely.

He really didn’t understand the point. They were adults and professionals—birthdays shouldn’t matter.

“Think of it as necessary battle-strengths for that Bitch,” Karma shrugged. “Isn’t it also the job of a supervisor to grasp the heart of their colleagues—show them that they are appreciated? Win them over?” He grinned his mischievous grin. “It’s a secret it came from us—okay?”

Karasuma frowned, glancing at the ground. The kids were scheming again, he was sure but… easier didn’t mean right. This could be a perfect opportunity to set things straight between the two of them. To remind Irina why she was here. That she was on a _job_ not a vacation.

“Alright—you have a point.” He took the flowers. “Thank you for your consideration.”

It didn’t take long for Irina to appear—he imagined that was the children’s efforts in the making. She stormed through the door, angry and frustrated, only to freeze as she saw him. “Perfect timing, Irina.”

“Kara… suma…?”

“Happy birthday.” He offered the flowers and watched as her face went blank, and then wide with wonder. She took them slowly—almost as if not believing they were real.

“…No way… from _you_?”

“I’m sorry it’s late, things have been busy,” he told her.

A slow smile took over her face—not one he saw often and usually only directed at the children when they weren’t watching. “I… I’m so happy, _thank you_!” She hugged the flowers a bit closer. “Considering this is you—this is _so_ nice. You aren’t scheming anything, are you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous—I genuinely wanted to congratulate you—” For a second he paused—almost tempted to let her go, she seemed so happy. But… it had to be done. “—seeing as this will be the first and last.”

She blinked—and then her face fell warily—before she tried a hesitant smile. “What do you mean… first and last?”

He sighed. Did he really have to spell it out? “It’s obvious. Either our mission will end or the world will end—it’s one or the other. Either way this will all be over in less than half a year.”

Her face fell more—a surge of emotions crossing it too fast for him to accurately pick up before it went blank. She stepped around him and he watched her as she shoved the window open. A startled gasp showed that—as he had rather expected—they had an audience.

“I thought it was something like this,” She said dully. “This hardass would never get me flowers.”

She pulled a gun and shot into the sky. The Target fell from the roof, a tentacle half melted. “Did you have fun? Seeing a pro assassin dancing on cloud nine for a little while, getting her hopes up—all for your sneaky little plan.”

“Your mistaken Irina-sensei,” The target tried to assure. “The children’s efforts were entirely motivated by good will!”

“I don’t believe you.”

She took a deep breath and turned back around—walking right past him and shoving the flowers into his arms.

She left with a slam of the door. The room was left in an awkward silence. Karasuma frowned down at the flowers. This was not how he had thought it would go.

He had _hoped_ that it would lead to a simple discussion where he reminded her that she had a duty and needed to take things seriously and that they were coworkers on a job where professionalism was expected. He had _expected_ her being upset and angry—perhaps yell, perhaps storm out…

He hadn’t expected her to turn on the children—or the blank look on her face—all the warmth from before gone. He hadn’t expected her to lose her composure so much over being turned down or from the student’s schemes.

“Bitch-Sensei!” They called out as she stormed away only to be stopped by the target. Then they turned on him.

“Karasuma-sensei, don’t you think that was cold?” Maehara snapped at him.

“Do you still not realize?” Okuda questioned in frustration.

“Of course I realize,” he snapped back. “Do I look _that_ dense?”

The awkward silence made him sigh. Perhaps his ignoring the issue for so long had made him look that dense.

He frowned at the flowers in his hand.

Did he feel bad—perhaps a bit. Had there been a better way—honestly giving her flowers first had been a bit cruel, he should have just refused— but it couldn’t be helped. What was done was done and had needed to be done. Irina was an adult and a pro—if she couldn’t regain her composure he’d just have to replace her. They didn’t have time anymore for carefully treading around hurt feelings. To give even a little leeway to the children he needed to be stricter with the adults.

“I can’t help if it seem heartless—if she can’t regain her composure—I’ll hire another assassin.” He looked over his shoulder at the simmering children. “If one’s blade is one that dulls from affection… you don’t have the qualifications to work here.”

Affection for him. Affection for the children. Even affection for the target—he had seen some of the birthday chase after all.

It had to be done.

 

_She hated him. She hated him. She hated him._

That Kara—no, that uhh… Crapsuma, Crapsuma… ugh it was hard to say…

Whatever.

But…

But maybe this was a good thing…

If she stayed there with her abilities—there was probally nothing more that she could gain. In fact… there was only what she could lose…

Her skill—her mindset…

She was already getting far more nightmares than she usually did. If that got _worse_ …

She remembered what Lovro had told her. How chasing after a normal life would lead to being haunted by her past—she remembered his scoffing remark of her playing teacher with the children.

She had fallen for her cover. She had fallen for the lie that she could be part of those kids pure little world.

She was an idiot.

“Oh—are you alright?” a soft, easy voice questioned and pulled her from her thoughts. She blinked at the young man standing behind her. “You look like you had a bad day—here; maybe this will cheer you up?”

He handed her a rather large bouquet of miscellaneous flowers. Irina grimaced in disgust. “Sorry I’ve had enough of flow…ers…”

She trailed off. The flower choices were odd—at first she thought it was just leftovers he needed to get rid of but...  Several Yellow Carnations circled the other flowers—rejection, disdain, disappointment.

Inside them: some Winged Seeds—a message; an Eglantine Rose—a wound to heal; a Dandelion—overcoming hardship; Amaranth—pride; Buttercup—profit; Gladiolus—strength of character, honor, conviction; a Purple Carnation-- Capriciousness, whimsical, _changeable_ , unreliability

Inside them: Aconite—hatred or _caution_ ; Begonia—Beware; and Mint—suspicion.

And finally in the middle a single Black Rose next to an Arum. Death… and…. Faith….

She jumped away. The man laughed. “You _are_ sharp, I like that,” and that was the last thing she remembered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of my goal for this fic is to make Irina seem more like the extremely talented assassin they say she is.
> 
> Also yay! The Reaper arc is starting!


	7. Time to Fall

Irina didn’t return the next day.

On one hand he was disappointed. On the other perhaps this was a good thing.

He had realized the value Irina brought—both with her skills and as a teacher for the kids but—with time running out perhaps someone new would be able to change things up.

The kids of course were miserable. Though they did their PE as normal, listened to him as usual—they were solemn and quiet. Upset—at him probably. Blaming him.

Fine, as long as they still did what they needed to do he would play the bad guy all they wanted.

Though it wasn’t his fault Irina couldn’t get over a kink in her pride.

 

“I don’t really understand why Bitch-sensei got so upset,” Karasuma overheard Okajima say as he passed by the classroom at lunch. Karasuma paused just outside the door and out of view. “At least enough to not show up today? She gets turned down by him all the time?”

That was what he wondered as well. He had refused all her efforts before to seduce him. Had the kink to her pride at thinking she had started to manage and then realizing she hadn’t hurt _that_ much.

“Well—normally she doesn’t get her hopes up first with flowers…”

“Oh—yeah… I guess.”

He looked away. Maehara was probably right. That had been unnecessary.

But that didn’t give justifying losing her composure and disappearing. That was all on her. She wasn’t a child. She was an adult. A professional.

“Actually. I… I don’t think that’s why she was so upset.”

He blinked.

“Huh, Yada?”

“I think—you’re right that Karasuma-sensei turns her down regularly… but… I don’t think _that’s_ why she was upset.”

“Then why was she upset?”

“Because he told her things were going to end,” Kurahashi sighed. “I think Bitch-sensei is… she’s _happy_ here, with us, and we know she gets lonely so… maybe…”she sighed. “And I don’t think Karasuma-sensei realized that.”

“He’s still super dense you mean.”

“Yeah.”

“And… it didn’t help that we went behind her back—and hung out with her only to run away right before either… eeeeh. That was _super_ obvious.”

“Yeah… I don’t think the flowers were the only thing she was counting when she said scenario…”

“She had been so happy hanging out with us too…” Hana sighed. “That was mean…”

“Yeah and it really did look bad I mean—it is kind of an easy jump to think we knew what Karasuma-sensei was going to do… I was surprised when he accepted the flowers.”

“Yeah…”

“We should have just given her the flowers.”

“Yeah…”

Karasuma stared at the floorboards. Then he abruptly walked away. It didn’t matter _what_ exactly had caused her composure to falter—just that it _had_.

It had to be done.

 

Irina awoke.

Thankfully she awoke properly—alert enough to stop herself from making it obvious. Able to feign sleep long enough to get some initial information.

She was in a large-ish room; she could smell food… that smelled… _familiar_? It was freezing—much colder than the October air had been—it was a struggle to not shiver and give away her wakefulness.

Because she wasn’t the only person in the room.

“Very good—I see you’re more capable than you seem.”

Irina huffed, knowing there was no point pretending, and opened her eyes.

Her assailant was sitting in a chair on the opposite side of a long table—with his face in shadows it was difficult to make out any details—but that didn’t mater. She knew who it was.

“The God of Death—the Reaper,” she said.

“I thought you noticed my little hint,” he smiled, nice and wide. “Good job. Flower language can be so interesting.”

“Why did you kidnap me,” she snapped. Why didn’t you kill me? she wondered. The Reaper didn’t kidnap people—he _killed_ them.

He’d been gone for two years. Why now? Why here? Why _her_?

“Oh, no, no, no, I didn’t kidnap you—you’re my guest—look no restraints—you even still have your gun!”

Yeah… her gun, the one full of _anti-sensei_ bullets.

“Then what was with knocking me out?”

He grinned sheepishly again. She hated it. It felt genuine—but she knew better. She… did…

“Well honestly… that may have been a bit rash of me—but I wanted to talk with you—and I wasn’t sure you would hear me out.”

She huffed. “Alright. Talk.”

“Well—first, let’s eat as we talk—I’m sure you’re hungry—you’ve been out for a while.”

He lifted a few platter lids and Irina stared.

One covered a Serbian meze, another riblja čorba—a fisherman’s soup.

The third had various pieces of grilled pljeskavica and sausages. The forth hid podvarak and plenty of bread.

The last one covered a vasa cake.

Irina looked up warily.

“While you were asleep I figured I’d cook up some traditional food.” He smiled that warm, unassuming smile again. “Dig in.”

 

“It’s been three days…”

“Yeah and she won’t even pick up her cell…”

“Karasuma-sensei… I know you have to prioritize your mission but… can’t you empathize with Irina-sensei… if only a little.” The target begged.

He glared at the floor. “…I have an interview with another hitman after this… I’m heading to the MoD.” He went to walk away.

“Karasuma-sensei!” Isogai and Maehara snapped. He paused and took a long suffering breath.

“This is a mission to save the planet,” he told them dryly. “It’s fine for you all to spend your time as middle school students but… she and I are experienced professionals. Compassion is _useless_.”

He left after that—left from a classroom of silence.

 

Irina sat in the room she had been given—petting the ears of one of the dogs the Reaper had trained. Despite the fact he had been trained to shoot bullets—to attack—he was perfectly happy to be petted, rubbing his face into her lap, even lifting a paw over her knee.

She couldn’t sleep—but she was beginning to get used to that.

Her master had told her she had to kill the target. Karasuma had reminded her who she really was.

The entire world was at stake. The bounty was now 30 billion yen for groups. The Reaper was one of the best.

He had asked _her_ for help.

_I’ve been watching for a while—looking for my best opening. I may have used the bouquet they gave you as a bug and I overheard what happened. I’m_ so _sorry that happened to you—that rejection—but it’s only natural. None of them know what it’s like—to come from nothing but violence. Me though…_

Bait. It hadn’t been the first time she had played it—though mostly she had played that roll when she was younger— working with some of Lovro’s other assassins.

But this time… She was bait not for the target—but for the target’s greatest weakness.

The bra—no, the _students_.

Did she hate them… no. There was even still a part of her that cared for them—even though she knew that the lie she had been living was just a lie.

_They will never understand you. We live separate lives—separate worlds really. They don’t understand what it really takes. To live in that world. I can understand wanting to get away from it—but it’s not something we can do. Either they are against us, or our past comes and drags us back. It is just who we are._

That was the part of her she had to kill—before she destroyed herself.

Before she hit that part Lovro had mentioned—the part of searching for peace and being haunted.

She couldn’t sleep—her hands kept shaking—her head hurt—it may be already too late.

But she _had_ to try.

_Don’t worry. You are valuable. Capable. I see great potential in you—you’re one in the best after all! If you want—why not help me catch that guy. We’d end up with more than what we would have if we did it by ourselves—fifteen billion over ten, and you’ll get a chance._

_A… chance…_

_Yeah. To prove to yourself—Who you are. What you’re capable of. To remind yourself of whom you are. You’ll be back to your old self in_ no _time._

Because she didn’t live in those children’s world—they were training to be assassins—but their training was half the time a game—their teachers loved them, even Karasuma, and they only would ever have one target and he wasn’t even human.

They likely wouldn’t kill him anyway.

She… she _didn’t_ live in that world—of light, and cheer, and innocent faces.

She lived in the world of pain and death, kill and be killed, of blood everywhere.

None of them understood—none of them would ever understood—even Karasuma, a military man—had _nothing_ to the world she lived in.

And before she ruined herself—she had to break the lingering wish she had for their world into teeny, tiny pieces.

 

It was useless. The guy was a total mess—an obvious amateur and one he doubted would ever get anywhere but prison.

He really should have him arrested before he hurt anyone innocent, but that went against the contract of the interview.

But he couldn’t do anything. He’d been unable to contact Lovro—their pipeline for assassins—and with Irina missing he couldn’t even try and use her to do so—

His phone rang. Speaking of the devil—It was Lovro.

“This is Karasuma— _Where_ have you been!?!”

“Almost dead.”

Karasuma’s eye widened.

“Is this line secure?”

“…Yes. I use frequencies that can’t be tracked.”

“Good—if I just gave information about that guy willy-nilly I’d be targeted again—and next time I don’t think I’d survive with just a month long coma.”

“Him?”

“Karasuma—wash your hands of this assassination.” He sighed. “Or else you will be in danger.”

“What…what do you mean?”

“Hitman killings—my students, my business partners, falling one by one—his skillful method—his ability to kill experts effortlessly—there can only be one person. The Reaper. He’s moving again.”

“The God of Death… the world’s greatest assassin that you mentioned?”

“Yes. As you know—an exceptional assassin is well versed in many skills.” For some reason, as he said that, Karasuma’s mental vision went to Irina playing piano. He shook it off. “No one knows his face because he’s an expert at disguise. The reason he can locate assassins without difficulty—is because his Intel gathering skills are elite. The reason competent assassins are dying—is because his assassination abilities are elite. The sheer degree of difficulty of the skill he’s using to take down those assassins—that just _proves_ it is him.”

Lovro sighed. “My life is probably doesn’t matter anymore—I won’t be working for a while either way—good luck.”

He hung up. Karasuma stared down at his phone.

The Reaper. So… he eliminates skilled business rivals—and when the opportunity shows himself he will go in for the kill—for that ten billion yen bounty. He’s a man who had built a mountain of corpses thousands high—he will kill anyone and anything, even…

Even a woman or middle school students.

Irina… she had been missing for three days now. She wouldn’t pick up her phone—not even from her favorite students. Ritsu had been unable to track her down. He had thought perhaps she had fled the country in her huff but…

Had the Reaper gotten her—it would have been the perfect moment for him to strike—Lovro had directly said his network was being targeted.

And the students! School was just letting out. They would be scattering soon and…

The Octopus was leaving for Brazil right after school today.

He needed to get back. _Now._

 

The kids came.

Completely and utterly—in there new combat gear and everything.

There was a part of Irina that twisted and turned at that.

They had come for her. To save _her_.

But it was only because they didn’t realize who she was. They didn’t understand—their world was still one of light and hope.

_Right?_

They escaped. She wasn’t surprised—they had planned for that.

_Part of her was still proud._

She quashed that bit like a bug and focused on feigning unconsciousness—one wrong move and the ploy would be foiled.

The kids came.

She had to make a choice.

It wasn’t a choice.

She had slept for six months.

She was fully awake now.

 

_“I’m glad Bitch-sensei is safe.”_

_“Right—there is still so much I want her to teach us.”_

_“Well she’s really more of a chatty friend than a teacher.”_

 

Lies. They were lies. Lies of uninformed children. Children who didn’t understand. Who only saw the mask. Who had _no_ idea.

 

“H-hey Bitch-sensei. It’s a shock and all that you became the Reapers underling but… are you _really_ planning on taking us all on by yourself?”

“We have been training with Karasuma every day and well, um…”

“With just you alone… do you really think it would even be a fight?”

She snorted at the obvious—the _expected_ words. They didn’t know. They didn’t understand.

They didn’t belong in this world.

“I did wonder… then… how about I give you brats a final lesson.”

She stepped forward, blaring her bloodlust to the point they stepped back, sweat dripping down their faces—and then faked a trip and yelp, grasping at her foot—gasping out like she was in pain. “Ugh—a stone—dammit—stupid bare feet!”

The mood dropped and a couple of the kids giggle in relief. Touka— _Yada_ eyes went wide. “Are you okay—” two down.

She stumbled on to the next two—surprise allowing her two more easy hits.

The blanket she had dragged along with her toes, she kicked back, covering the last two.

They were down.

They had never known her true self. She had never shown it to them. They had no idea of what she could do. What she had done.

“Th-th-th not-fai-fair.”

“Pretending y-you were hu-hurt. We were worried about you for a se-se—”

“You didn’t experience those kind of moves in training did you,” Irina noted staring at the slowly faltering kids around. They blinked tiredly up at her. “Let me give one last bit of advice—Even if you receive quality training—if you can’t produce results it means _nothing.”_

Results were all that mattered. She had forgotten that—but she remembered now.

She turned away as the last of them collapsed. “Regardless of the method… I’ve produced results on this field and you haven’t—fairness isn’t a consideration in this world—it’s a matter of experience. Understand—that there is difference in the number of battlefields we’ve been on.”

“What’s this—you defeated them _all_ alone?”

Irina shivered even as she smiled. She didn’t bother to turn—she knew she wouldn’t be able to properly see him. “It’s like you said… there is no merit in joining forces with these kids.”

“Exactly—our worlds are different.”

_While they were breathing clean air—we’ve been living this whole time breathing mists of blood._

Right… her world was different.

Even from yours… Karasuma…

Her hands shook.

 

He had failed.

Again.

The students had been pulled into this.

Again.

And now.

“Irina-sensei!!”

“Irina!”

Irina had been captured—considering the bug and the bouquet and the lack of contact right after… he couldn’t help but feel responsible—he had played right into the Reaper’s hands.

But now wasn’t the time.

The hitman holding her—the flower guy he had passed—he had such an obscure bloodlust—he couldn’t get a read on him at all.

He threw Irina towards them—Karasuma leaned over her to check on her—she didn’t move but was breathing. How long had she been drugged?

“She and the students have explosive collars on their neck—I can detonate them at will,” he smiled. Karasuma glared at him, his mind whirling. There had to be a way out of this.

The Octopus yelped. Karasuma glanced over wide-eyed and then down. Irina had pulled herself up slightly, a gun on her cuff and a smirk on her face. In her other hand was a remote.

The Octopus fell. The Reaper—he was capable of seeing and shooting his tentacles.

Irina… had _helped_ him?

“Irina…?”

She ignored him, standing up and clicking her cuffs off. She followed the Reaper down the stairs and he trailed after—lost and confused.

 

“The fearful water pressure will steal your freedom and push you up against the anti-sensei material of the cage. You’ll be cut up like jelly!”

Irina stared at the ground. She hadn’t known that part. The Reaper hadn’t shared much of his full plan—just what she could do to help with it.

The kids… the kids would die.

She hadn’t known that.

…

She also hadn’t asked.

“Wait! Do you plan to kill the students to?”

Her hands were shaking again—how embarrassing—she crossed her arms to hide it.

“Well… obviously I can’t wait now. Though jamming him in there with them was part of the plan—if he tries and get violent a weak little child would get involved.”

“Irina! You knew this and still—”

She looked towards him. He looked so afraid. So angry.

She didn’t feel anything. Not really.

“I took action that prioritized results,” she told him. “That’s what you wanted—wasn’t it?”

 

“I took actions that prioritized results—that’s what you wanted—wasn’t it?”

She stared at him—her eyes cold and empty—and then she dropped her head again.

That was what he wanted, yes… but… but… but…

He looked back to the cage to the students noticeable in their fear.

“Let’s go Irina—we’ll go occupy the flow room and let the water in.”

He moved to pass him—Karasuma stopped him without thinking.

“Oh—What’s with that hand? Is the Japanese government _really_ going to stop my assassination?” The man shouldered his hand off. “I admit it’s a bit violent—but are you _really_ going to stop the best chance at saving the world?”

The Reaper stepped in front of him and grinned. “For one—I had been planning on leading you here and making you one of my hostages—you _can’t_ stop me.”

Karasuma was frozen.

He had asked—all the way at the beginning—at what he should do if the world could be saved at the loss of one—or all of the students’ lives. His superior had refused to give a definite answer—leaving it up to him to make the choice on site. To take responsibility—so he could be thrown under the bus when it was all over.

But also… that meant right now… his decision was the one of the government.

And it said _no._

He punched. He hit. The Reaper was thrown to the wall. He reached for his tie and loosened it. “Let me tell you the opinion of the government—it says: These twenty-seven lives are weightier than the world. If you plan to kill them—I _will_ stop you.”

He turned to Irina who was staring at him in wonder—for the first time he’d seen her here her eyes didn’t look dull. “Let me tell you _this_ , Irina. Being a professional isn’t something so carefree.”

 

She had no idea what he was talking about. Carefree—what was carefree about _this?_ What was _not_ carefree about his choice?

The professional choice—as a dog of the military—the government—would have been to let them die. The professional choice would have been to stand down. The professional choice would have been to save the world.

The _emotional_ choice was what he was using right now.

He was a hypocrite. That was all.

“Irina…”

She snapped out of it with a sigh and looked over to the cage, her hand decoupling the bomb around her neck. “He’s reckless… it’s true that Karasuma is superhuman—but that guy—he is beyond that.”

“Bitch-sensei…” Touk— _Yada_ whispered.

“You betrayed us even knowing you were going to _kill_ us!” Maehara snapped. Irina didn’t bother to correct him. What did it matter?

They were finally seeing her as who she really was after all… _what_ she was.

An assassin. A hitman. A _killer_.

“Why! We thought you were our friend!”

_Friend._

When was the last time she had ever had a friend. Before the attack of coarse—she was sure she had one—perhaps plenty…

She couldn’t remember any.

She couldn’t remember much at all.

“You were scared, right?” Karma said with that annoying grin. Her hands started shaking again. “You always said pro this and pro that—but you were starting to lose your assassin intuition from our lax school life.” Her whole body was shaking now—a surge of emotion snapped from wherever it had been hiding, rushing through her limbs and up her spine. “So you want to kill us—to prove a point—‘I’m a coldhearted assassin’!”

It reached her head and she snapped—the collar flung from her hand and slammed into the bars. “You know _nothing_ about me!” she shouted. “It _never_ crossed my mind that I could live my life in a normal world like this!”

The kids—the target—were blissfully silent.

“Having fun with kids who feel like little brothers and sisters… worrying about… about _love_ … That’s not right. That sort of dazzling world isn’t _my_ world.”

Why was she saying this? She needed to stop. She had been _so_ close. She needed to go back. Back to the numbness.

“Irina, I need your help.” She blinked, her hand going to her ear. She had forgotten about the earpiece. “I’m making my way to the control room while setting traps. I want you to shoot Karasuma from behind while he’s dealing with them.”

She blinked at the ground. Shoot… Karasuma…

“In the end… the people of this country… they aren’t prepared to kill. You though— _you_ lived alongside death—he won’t be able to dodge your bullet.”

Right. _Right._

“Got it,” she said, grabbed her gun, and ran.

 

“That was a trade show of traps just now— _lots_ of diversity,” Karasuma said easily as he took the time to brush off some dust.

The Reaper just shrugged. “Once you master many skills—it only makes sense that you would want to use them all.”

Then he grinned wider and Karasuma had no time to react as a bullet grazed right under his eye.

He turned to find Irina standing behind him. He hadn’t noticed her at _all._

He _should_ have noticed her.

He had hoped his comment downstairs would have been the end of this.

“You’re supposed to hit him, Irina,” the Reaper scolded.

“Sorry… I’ll hit him with the next one.”

His gaze darted back to the Reaper and then back to her. “… You’re going to die, Irina.”

She smiled at him—looking bemused. “I’m well prepared for that,” she told him honestly. “But you probably wouldn’t understand.” A flicker of something passed over her face. Her shoulder tensed and for a second her gun wobbled. “He… understood… he said… we were one and the same…”

“Yeah. I did tell you one of my old stories didn’t I?” the Reaper agreed. “I was born in an old slum with never-ending terror—an uncertain world where your life could end in an instant—where there were only two sure things: money and one’s own skills.” He grinned pulling out his phone. “If you kill, people die. That’s all there is.”

He gave one last smile. “If it’s you Irina—you know how I feel, even if I do—”

The ceiling exploded. He was lucky with how it fell—he escaped with minimal damage.

“I knew you would survive,” the Reaper said, peering through the crack left in the barricade door as the dust began to settle. “But now you’re trapped.” Karasuma scowled and stood, examining the rubble blocking his way. “You know, it’s likely that you or that monster could have escaped if you were alone… That woman—I only employed her to befuddle you.”

Realization hit Karasuma and he looked back to see Irina’s head just barely sticking out of another rubble pile just ten feet behind him—unconscious—hopefu- _probably_.

“She was _so_ lost it was _cute._ Is it alright to get my old comrades involved in this? Her hesitation was contagious. Even you were hesitant as to whether or not to attack her and as a result—” He let out a prideful laugh. “You were worried about her and your reaction was delayed.”

Anger bubbled under his skin and Karasuma slammed a hand down on some rubble. The Reaper continued to laugh as he moved on ahead.

He’d been had. Manipulated.

They _both_ had been.

“Karasuma-sensei! Karasuma-sensei!” His pocket yelled and he remembered the transmitter. He pulled it out knowing the kids were at _least_ as scared as the target.

“I’m alright.”

“And Irina-sensei?”

He humped and looked back at her. “She’s pinned under some rubble… but I don’t have time for that. I’ll do something about the rubble clearing my path and head to the control room—”

“NO!!! Why aren’t you helping here Karasuma-sensei!”

“Kurahashi…” he sighed. “In her own way she seeked results by joining the Reaper… this is the outcome of that.” He looked back at her. He remembered her words. He remembered the world was at stake and the difference between twenty seven and seven billion… “I won’t… _blame_ her for it but nor will I help her. A full-fledged professional takes responsibility.”

“This has _nothing_ to do with being a professional,” Kurahashi snapped full of exasperation and Karasuma blinked. “I _know_ I’m only fifteen,” she continued. “But Bitch-sensei is only _barely_ twenty one and… and from all her stories it seems she’s been an assassin for a _really_ long time so… I think maybe… as she was growing up… she _missed_ a few pieces.”

He blinked again.

“Karasuma… do you _really_ know what it means to kill.”

Eight confirmed kills, many more suspected, all at twenty years old.

“He understood me…”

Her staying up all night sitting with the kids to wound to sleep.

“…an uncertain world where your life could end in an instant…”

“Either we die, or the mission ends, either way this will be over in less than six months.”

“I am well prepared for that.”

“Help her out Karasuma-sensei,” Yada pitched in. “You always forgive us when _we_ make mistakes.”

“Forgive Bitch-sensei this time too,” Nakamura finished.

These kids…

“But… It will be a loss of time… and you will die…”

“Don’t worry about that,” Isogai answered cheerfully. “The Reaper will likely come back without fulfilling his goal—so you stay right there, Karasuma-sensei.”

These kids…

 

She was back again.

The smell of smoke. Of death.

The majority of her town razed and burned. It had been a miracle her house hadn’t caught fire as she hid. There would have been no escape.

A miracle she hadn’t wanted. Not really.

Maybe she should have stepped out of the house. Allowed herself to be shot.

Lovro—younger—was in front of her. Olga—alive—was behind her.

“I’ll say one thing, little lady” he told her. “From here on, that no matter how peaceful a world you find yourself in—your memories of this day won’t wash away.”

He loomed, dark and fierce, like a giant statue reaching for the clouds.

“You’ll surely experience flashbacks. The more peaceful of a world you live in… the more harshly those cruel memories will return to you.”

The dread. The terror. The fear of his words.

She wanted to forget. She wanted the pain to go away.

“But you have a choice—I am an assassin. I can nurture that excellent talent of yours for assassination and… if you were to join us in blood even your unpleasant memories of blood would become everyday things.”

He pulled out a knife, offering it to her. She flinched.

“While fearing those memories of blood—will you seek peace, or rather than running from those memories—will you domesticate it as your occupation.”

She had said yes.

And that was where her life had started.

Training at twelve, her first true hit at barely thirteen—the leader of the militia that destroyed her town. Barely a month after her first honey trap—the billionaire that had funded it.

After that—she went from job to job, place to place.

The more she had killed, the more the warmth of blood faded—the less the memory of that tainted blood haunted her.

A cold sea of blood was her every day—how fitting she should be killed by a betrayal.

And she was glad. Glad it was all going to end without her remembering what that warmth felt like.

Movement above her had her fluttering her eyes open. With a jolt of pain the heavy rock pulled away from her body and she could only stare in wonder at Karasuma suddenly above her—slab of concreate held back by his shoulder.

“Get out of there,” he told her through pained breath. “I’ll shoulder the heavy stuff for you.”

 

The look of pure bewilderment and confusion in her eyes as she looked up at him—that would haunt him for a while—but she listened. Silently crawling far enough away that he could drop the rubble back down.

She coughed from the dust in the air, raising her arm up only to wince and drop it. He frowned. “Careful, it might be broken.” He pulled off what was left of his shirt off and began ripping it into strips; with a splinter of wood it would make a functional makeshift cast.

“Does it hurt anywhere else?” She was still staring at him—somewhat blankly, enough that he was concerned about shock, before she turned away suddenly and swayed. “Irina?”

“I-I’m fine, nothing serious, just bruising.”

He frowned at her, watched as she peeked back and her face flustered once more, her gaze darting away. He looked down at his bare chest and sighed.

Deep down—after everything—Irina was still the same.

But… he wasn’t unhappy about that.

He’d been a hypocrite.

After she had gotten hung up on what being a professional was like he’d lectured her on how this classroom was all about multiple roles—assassin and students, target and teacher, that it required flexibility—only for him to make the same mistake months later.

They had _both_ been putting too much of their identity into being a professional.

They had _both_ fallen into the trap of seeing through only that lens.

They had _both_ been hiding behind that word.

They _were_ professionals.

They were also _people._

Irina had made a mistake… but so had he.

He had handled his increasing stress levels by gripping harder and harder into what was proper and professional. With time he had begun projecting that standard on those around him. Irina hadn’t fit in and he was quick to judge.

He had seen her actions on the shallowest level and had been blinded to their causes. It wasn’t as if the clues hadn’t been there.

The true honesty of it was that neither Irina’s increasing affection nor familial rapport for the children, or her flirtatious games she played had ever really gotten in the way of their goal. No matter what he had said—it had not blunted her blade.

Nor would have apologizing blunted his.

He grabbed another strip and secured her brace more firmly. “Despite you setting them up the children were worried about you,” he told her and she winced, turtling in on herself, her eyes still wide with confusion. He sighed a little at that. “After hearing that… I felt _small_ for being so fixated on the boundaries of a professional.” He looked up to meet her eyes. “I was lacking in compassion, I’m sorry.”

A slight noise and he froze, his eyes darting to the blocked passage way. Moments after he saw Irina’s do the same. The Reaper was back. The kids had been right.

“Irina,” he said as he stood. “It… may be _different_ than the world you were raised in but… the children and I… we _need_ you in our world.”

 

Need her…

She watched as he careful climbed the rubble into the ceiling and then quickly ducked her eyes. She would give him away if she didn’t.

Need her…

The children… and Karasuma…

She was an _idiot_.

She had a nice thing. A _good_ thing. A chance to touch the surf of the world of light and peace with her toes—and yes it would hurt, it would always hurt—but it was worth it, even if it wouldn’t last.

But she had tried to destroy that wonderful, _good_ thing.

And yet… The children… Karasuma… still _wanted_ her.

_Needed_ her.

An explosion blasted the rubble from the door and Irina was pelted with rubble. She grimaced as several new cuts began to bleed and looked up tiredly to the Reaper.

He didn’t understand… not _her_ world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I the only one who thinks Lovro is a dick. He totally manipulated Irina into saying yes to being an assassin because he wanted her as a student. He may have kinda believed his bullcrap--but he still failed her pretty hard.


	8. Time to Get Back Up

“Irina, where is Karasuma?”

He didn’t know how she would respond. He liked to think he had gotten through to her but… he didn’t know. There hadn’t been time for her to even react before the Reaper had returned.

“He was already gone when I came to—” she lied and he felt a knot in his chest loosen even as he refused to let down his guard. This man was of the best—he had to be perfect or he would be seen. “I’d guess he ran to look for another path.” She thumped her head back against the wall and lulled it towards the Reaper slightly—perhaps acting the part of a concussion—perhaps not an act. “That was _awful_ of you.”

The Reaper laughed and his guard fell significantly if only for that one moment. For someone so skilled he was rather overconfident—so convinced in his control over Irina that he was willing to take her at her word. So convinced at his skill that he was willing to drop his guard. Karasuma took his chance, circling him, hoping that the rubble below him wouldn’t shift or give out.

“Sorry about that—but If I hadn’t blown you both up I wouldn’t have been able to finish my goal.” His voice lowered. “Beside, our world is one of deceiving and being deceived. I’m _sure_ you understand.”

Irina shrugged lightly. “Oh, I don’t mind. After all, I’m just the bitch who hops from one man to the next.”

She smirked and lifted up her arm and the cast on it and the complete surprise of the Reaper was enough for him to make the final leap, grabbing him from behind and pulling.

“Rather than being overconfident in your skills—perhaps you should have made some reliable friends,” he told the man as he tilted them back enough to fall over the ledge. “I don’t know what kind of tricks you have up here—so let’s go somewhere refreshing.”

They plunged.

 

Irina watched them fall.

Her stomach went with them though she bit her tongue and reminded herself that Karasuma had purposefully pulled him over.

He wouldn’t kill himself for the kids… right…

Not if he didn’t _have_ to…

He had _just_ said she was needed in his world dammit.

She pushed herself up and limped to the edge, peering down into the flood basin below. To her relief she spotted Karasuma stand—but then to her disgust so did the Reaper.

She slowly made her way to the emergency stairs. She _had_ to get closer.

And not just because Karasuma was both shirtless and soaked right now.

She paused and slapped her forehead, regretting it instantly as she swayed. She may have a slight concussion. Nonetheless—this was _not_ the time.

Or appropriate.

Not after…

She shook her head (and again regretted everything) and slowly made her way forward and down.

 

If the stakes weren’t so high Karasuma may have had fun with this fight.

It wasn’t that often than a single person gave him a significant challenge in a one to one fight—nonetheless he managed to keep the Reaper on the defensive.

“I’ll tell you the truth Karasuma,” the Reaper said lightly while dodging another blow. Karasuma was ready—he knew he’d try to alarm him, or startle him, or fluster him—there was _nothing_ he could say that would bother him. “I truly grew up in a wealthy household with no want for anything.”

Karasuma’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, it was a complete lie that I grew up in a tragic environment—just an acquaintance’s story with a few changed details.” He smiled. “I used some social engineering to manipulate that girl. It was _easy._ ”

More of that throbbing anger that had been his constant companion since childhood pounded up from where he kept it sheathed. He knew he was being baited but that didn’t change how _pissed_ he was.

Pity for the Reaper—he didn’t know how many years he’d been working on turning his anger into a reliable, controllable, weapon.

_“You…”_

“But my dad _was_ killed by an assassin. I didn’t really care that he died—but the moves the assassin used—killing him so gracefully—it made me think— _wow_ what _beautiful_ skill.”

The sudden diversion startled him enough that Karasuma barely dodged two knife strokes before—the Reaper _dropped_ the knife. Instantly he remembered Nagisa and Lovro, and with force he focused his eyes away from the blade and to the Reaper but… he didn’t seem to have another weapon but instead…

He had a… _rose_ …?

“Behold, the culmination of my mastered skills.”

Karasuma narrowed his eyes as the rose was thrown into the air, his gaze following it for a second before he caught himself and looked back at the man who was pointing at him.

“The Grim Reapers Invisible scythe!”

Something small popped from his finger and Karasuma could only widen his eyes before it hit—and it was only after it hit did he feel it.

The sticky tentacle on his chest.

He fell forward, faking taking the hit, grimacing at the smell of tomato juice. Hopefully the Reaper wouldn’t notice with all the water and his overconfidence.

The Reaper walked closer, gloating of his ability, already assuming he had won. Karasuma watched him through his eyelashes as he fell even more forward onto his hands and knees—still playing the part. Just a bit more—just a bit more—there!

He slammed his fist right into the man crotch. The man fell back yelping in pain.

“Good to know even the, ‘god of death’ shares the common vital areas,” he snarked pushing himself up. He stared at the man cringing in front of him and felt only frustration and anger. “Are you ready— _Reaper_ … _you_ laid a hand on _my_ precious students and colleague.”

“What—wait! Who else but me could kill him—”

He grinned, his lips curling sharply. “If you want to talk about skills— _we_ have a full set.”

And with one last hit the Reaper flew, slamming into the concrete wall, and slumping into the water. “How about you retire from assassinations—your skills would be useful at the Employment Office.”

The Reaper slumped, unconscious.

It was done.

 

Precious.

He had called her _precious._

Along with the students—but being compared to his care for them at _all_ was more than she ever…

Needed… Friend… Precious…

She was _so_ stupid.

She should just leave. Before she hurt these children again. But…

Karasuma was looking at her.

 

At his feet innocently sat the rose the Reaper had thrown. He looked from it, to the Reaper, and back again, before carefully picking it up. Despite being wet it was in surprisingly good condition. He looked over to where Irina had been watching above to see she was still there—and waved his free hand towards the way the students were.

She hesitated, but then turned to walk up the few flights of stairs she needed before she could sneak over to where she needed to go. He would manage with the ladder.

She could flee now. He would be too focused on releasing the children and calling the MoD to stop her. He was well aware of that though he had his doubts. She’d already walked down all those flights for no reason other than concern, if she had wanted to flee she would have been better off doing so after he had fell.

But she still could… and yet he was sure she would show.

He approached the body of the Reaper—unconscious with every test he could think off—and removed his phone from his pocket, securely placing it in his before he heaved the man over his shoulder.

 

His subordinates arrived within fifteen minutes. By then he’d had used the extra-strength restraining tape in the kids combat gear to firmly restrain the man though he hadn’t yet regained consciousness.

“He was a man of astounding skill, but he overestimated those skills to much,” he told the class who crowded around him, eyes wide at the sight of the man’s face—or lack thereof. If nothing else he could make a lesson out of this. “As a person there was a part of him that was immature—and he had an opening.”

“In that way—he’s kind of like Bitch-sensei then, right?” Yada suggested pointing to the woman who was hovering a good twenty feet down the hall—sullen and uncomfortable.

Karasuma observed her. Yes and no. He wouldn’t deny that there was an immature side to her—He suspected Kurahashi was correct in her assessment of Irina—but in this case… he didn’t believe the opening that the Reaper had taken advantage of had been built from her immaturity—at least, not directly.

Even adults—even the most mature—could be manipulated.

But it wasn’t his place to say. Not to the kids. Irina could decide that. “…yeah.”

“But still… why?” Yoshida asked with a disgusted grimace. “Why care about skills so much you would tear off your own _face?_ ”

“Apparently it from an experience in his childhood—after watching an assassins high level skill—apparently his life changed.”

“…The one who influenced him was a fool,” The Target mumbled. Karasuma glanced at him curious. “With this much talent—he could have been successful in so many other things.”

The words struck a chord in Karasuma. He glanced down at the floor in thought. “Whether you save a life or you kill… I suppose it depends on the people and world around you.”

“Exactly,” The Target agreed before raising his voice. “Right, Irina-Sensei!”

The entire group turned to look at her to find her twenty more feet down the hall. Karasuma blinked surprised— _again_ he hadn’t notice her move. She glanced back nervously—frozen—and then tried to make a dash for it.

He sighed as the kids shouted and made chase. _Now_ she wanted to run away. Nonetheless she didn’t get far—not in her condition—and the kids lugged her back.

He rolled his eyes as her suggestions of revenge against her went sexual but… then he paused. She didn’t seem facetiousness, or hopeful… she seemed honestly to believe that was a possibility—a likely one. Was this another one of those moments where their two worlds didn’t line up. Did her thoughts always go to those levels because that’s just how the world she lived in worked? Had she faced with such actions before…

_No._ It wasn’t the time to think about that.

“Look! Just come to class already!” Terasaka snapped. “Don’t go disappearing for days on end.”

Irina went quiet, her eyes wide and confused again. Karasuma couldn’t completely blame her—he hadn’t expected Terasaka to be the one to say it.

Showed how far both of them had come.

“Yeah,” Yada agreed. “I want to hear the rest of that story—about how you seduced an Arabian prince and almost started a war.”

“And if you don’t come back, I’m not returning that French version of Hanadan I borrowed,” Megu continued.

Irina just stared, eyes wide and confused. Warily she lowered her head slightly. “You realize… I was _this_ close to killing all of you. I’ve… I’ve done _lots_ of things in my past… thing that would make you draw back…”

Her voice lowered and her gaze dropped to the floor. Karasuma watched quietly. She did not understand this world they were in… but he hadn’t understood any of it until now either. Not really. This world was not the normal world. It was not the blood-filled world of trauma either, and it was not the professional and strict world of the military… it was something in-between and completely new all at once. It was a world where middle school students learned to be assassins and grew closer because of it. A world where a much loved teacher was those student’s target and happily so. A world where two very different people of two very different worlds could meet and maybe figure it out together.

It was a fragile, unique world… but one he was becoming fond of.

“Is that a problem?” Takabayashi said pushing up his glasses. “Betraying people, doing dangerous things—isn’t that what a bitch is?”

“If we can’t manage to enjoy school with a bitch, what’s the point of us trying to be assassins and middle school students all at once,” Nakamura continued with a shrug as Muramatsu pulled Irina to her feet.

He remembered the rose in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out. He took the lead in.

“Exactly,” he said stepping forward. Irina blinked over to him and then froze, eyes going wide.

He held out the rose to her—well aware they had an audience. “This flower,” he said handing it to her. She took it automatically without thinking. “It isn’t something I borrowed from the students. Through my own will I obtained it after beating the enemy. For your birthday. Will that do?”

She stared at him—emotion rushing behind her eyes but not the kind he’d been trained to read.

“…yes…” she breathed, a soft smile and warm flush slowly sliding onto her face as she cradled it close to her chest. Karasuma internally sighed in relief. He had been a bit belatedly concerned that a flower from the man that had manipulated her—defeated or not—wouldn’t have gone well.

But all the same—it had felt right. The Reaper had manipulated her—picked at wounds that had scarred badly until she was lost and confused. Those words he had said—his gloating about his lie—had caused Karasuma’s rage to burn.

It only felt right that the true victim of this would get the trophy of his defeat.

“However—Karasuma-sensei, a word before this turns into something lascivious.”

Karasuma growled—why couldn’t that be let go. He had meant it in a friendly manner. _Friendly!_ They were _still_ coworkers dammit! He glared at the target who giggled. “That would _never_ happen… but go ahead.”

“From here on out,” he said his voice and face going suddenly dark. “By no means do I want the children getting caught up in dangerous situations. _Please_ make it so.”

He agreed. He was tired of seeing these kids on the verge of death. It wouldn’t be easy but… perhaps. “I know. I have an idea—I’ll need all your help though.”

More people came through the door and he could hear the sounds of an ambulance finally pulling in. “But tonight I have to deal with this.”

 

The kids were sent home with an escorted guard—just to be safe—but also because they were exhausted and making them walk seemed unfair. The target flew off soon after—probably to double check everyone made it home safe himself.

The EMT’s tried to drag him into the ambulance to be checked over but he managed to avoid them—he was bruised as hell and he would been feeling today for a week at least, but for the most part he had made it out okay. He had some cuts and scrapes that would need to be cleaned—but that could wait.

He did allow them to put a bit of gauze on his cheek—that was the only one still really bleeding.

He made sure Irina listened though instead of disappearing into the night—mostly through staring sternly at her until she meekly allowed the EMT’s to look at her arm and still bleeding cuts.

It was a mess. Calling in the attack—getting the Reaper properly restrained before he awoke and became dangerous—calling in the vandalism to the floodgate—getting the Reaper’s base cleared of weapons and other dangerous things.

Like the dogs. He had almost forgotten about them.

At least until a few of the younger agents threatened to _kill_ them.

“What should we do?”

“Maybe we should just shoot them.”

“Do _you_ want to try because I don’t want my death certificate to say ‘killed by dog with _gun_.’”

Karasuma and was about to intervene—he was not about to watch them be put down unnecessary— when he noticed Irina walk past them with her arm in a soft cast. He had thought she had been taken to the hospital. He blinked as the others panicked and tried to convince her to stand back.

“Oh, calm down, they are trained—you just need to know the commands.” She made a sound—he absolutely had no idea what language that was if it _was_ one—and the dogs slowly sat down, still anxious and nervous. She approached the biggest one and made another sound before onehandedly unbuckling the gun from his head—disabling the shooting mechanism. “See—no big deal.”

She petted the dog who rubbed his head into her hand as if he knew her—and perhaps he did, Irina had been gone for three days—while the two agents awkwardly tried to make the same sounds and an EMT yelled and ran over trying to get Irina back to the ambulance.

So… Irina liked dogs to… something to know.

He shook his head and seeing as that seemed handled went to one of the thousands of other things he needed to do.

Irina would keep an eye on it.

Hmm… why did his chest feel tight…

Maybe he _should_ let the EMT’s check it out when he was done—just in case.


	9. Time To Do Better

They forgave her.

She didn’t understand _why_ they had forgiven her. She had done _nothing_ worth forgiving. She’d tricked them, used their concern to capture them, stood by as she realized the Reaper fully planned to kill them, personally _shot_ at Karasuma…

And they forgave her. _Karasuma_ of all people had forgiven her—or at least he still tolerated her.

He’d _lied_ to the _government_ about her—to _protect_ her—called her a hostage, mentioned nothing about her having turned…

She had been wrong. He wasn’t just a dog of the government. Or at least he tried not to be.

She was an _idiot_ —maybe the Reaper had manipulated her but that didn’t change the fact she managed to somehow take the “facts” that “the kids didn’t care—they didn’t understand” and “They will totally come and find you if they thought you were kidnapped without telling anyone in fear of your life” and not see the problem with believing the both of them.

Or didn’t want to see the problem. Was too afraid to see the problem… because that meant admitting she cared, and if she cared that meant she would get hurt because it would go away. Because it would always go away eventually. People like her didn’t get good things—not good things that weren’t covered in blood…

And she almost covered all the kids in blood.

So she didn’t understand. She didn’t deserve a second chance.

But… but they _had_ so… she had to do better. She had to repay them.

But how…

 

“A request from all the students of Class E?” his superior asked looking up from the paper he’d been handed.

Karasuma nodded. “They request that in the event that they, the students, are involved as a consequence of another’s assassination attempt, that the bounty would not be paid. If such warning is not put on the wanted posters—the students say they will boycott the classroom. It will… narrow the possibilities for assassination but… I feel it is natural for the students to want to secure their own safety.”

Her superior stared at him for a long moment and then he chuckled. “You’ve grown quite fond of them, haven’t you Karasuma.”

Karasuma swallowed. He’d been seen through—that this hadn’t been an idea of a student. Ideally it wouldn’t matter—but if his superior decided to pull him from the mission—to replace him with someone more distant…

“But that’s fine. I’ll accept this condition.”

Karasuma blinked.

“Either way it’s all over, the time to rely on individual assassins that is.”

Karasuma’s brows furrowed.

“I’m sure you haven’t noticed but—there has been an unprecedented amount of apartment construction recently. We’ve feigned it as a housing boon but—well, it’s the start of a joint operation of numerous nations. The final assassination project.” He pulled out his knife and juggled it a bit. “I saw the outline of it—it’s unbelievable technology. Before that—there is no way an assassin could stand up.”

He paused in his knife throwing. “As well as… Shiro may have found his new weapon—he may be the only one outside of this that has a chance. So as soon as the preparations are ready—the joint operation will begin—set for March of next year.

“So don’t worry—I no longer expect a deathblow from the students. Just enjoy your assassinations—as long as he doesn’t flee everything will be fine.”

He had been dismissed after that—with the customary “it’s strictly confidential, do not tell anyone” line. He walked his way through the halls of the MoD with uncertain thoughts. It was good that there was a backup plan. And it was good he wouldn’t have to fight tooth and nail to bring the students some safety but…

Something about this didn’t sit right. It was too easy and…

He supposed he had just really wanted the kids to be able to do it.

And Shiro—he didn’t like Shiro’s involvement at all. He had hoped—after the last time… the government would…

Well… it didn’t matter.

Hopefully the new rule would keep that man’s plan in check.

 

She changed her “uniform.” Part of it was just that it was getting cold—though normally she could handle the cold rather well, except for when she didn’t (and generally she didn’t like to think of those times), the rest… well more than one person had said her former clothes were to… risqué.

So she would wear what a normal English teacher would wear… which was… um…

“…Google… what do teachers wear?”

Huh… that worked. She got tons of hits… maybe this would be easier than she thought!

Hmm, let’s see… “Teacher Wardrobe on a Budget.”

Budget huh… her hotel fees were pretty expensive… and it _was_ a normal thing for people to have to do…

…Where did you go to buy cheap clothing?

…

“Google… where can I find cheap clothes nearby?”

 

Okay so the clothing worked… sorta. The kids kind of freaked when they first saw them but got over it pretty quickly, and a few of the girls even called it cute after English, just _different_ for her.

Which… It _was_ to be completely fair. As far as they knew.

But… she kind of liked how it came out. The sweater was warm and she liked being able to nuzzle her cheek in its collar or hide her face a little—cheap or not…

And it hid the bandages she was still wearing—the brace on her left elbow—the kids didn’t need to know she still hurt. It was her own fault anyway.

But of _course_ Karasuma was already gone again on another business trip so he wasn’t around to see it. But whatever, she wasn’t disappointed; she didn’t do it for _him._

Though the kids had tried to convince her that a more conservative outfit _would_ do better and they likely were right but…

No. _No_ she didn’t do it for him. He had made it rather clear he wasn’t interested and he had forgiven her from shooting at him (And she could still see the graze on his cheek from that shot and didn’t that turn her stomach) and she wasn’t going to mess up this… _coworker_ or whatever relationship they still had.

No matter the fact that rose was dried and pressed into her favorite novel... that had been nice, but had also seemed a bit forced… like he was just trying to make her feel better—an apology—not that he _felt_ anything beyond that.

Which she had known—she had just hoped…

But it was fine. It didn’t matter. At the moment the only thing that did was the kids… what else could she do, clothes really didn’t matter that much.

But to them… their _exams_ did… and some of them even wanted to travel so…

“Google… how do you teach English?”

“Google what are good English lessons?”

 “Google what are good young adult English novels?”

 “Google what are age appropriate movies for fifteen year olds in English?”

 

“Happy Birthday, Bitch-Sensei!”

Irina blinked as she walked in to the classroom to see the kids crowded around one desk, a cake with a candle lit on it. This was _not_ what she had been expecting when the Octopus had asked her to show up just after homeroom.

“I… I... but you…”

“We know it’s like, _super_ belated now,” Rio grinned with a shrug. “But we figured better late than never.”

“But…you… the _flowers?_ ”

“The flowers that were bugged and also made you really upset— _not_ our best gift,” Maehara grinned. “So we did something better.”

“Yeah, Hara made a cake!” Touka said swinging an arm around the girl who smiled as the delinquent group held back the Octopus who was drooling nearby.

“And we didn’t know what to get you so… we figured a card was okay—from all of us—” Kataoka continued, handing her a thick envelope.

“Though Sugaya and I—we were pretty happy with our pictures—you know… from that day,” Okajima said throwing an arm around Sugaya. “So we included them in there—take a look—and their not creepy—promise!”

Shocked Irina could only do what they said, and she opened the envelope only for her eyes to water and her chest to bubble.

The card wasn’t a happy birthday card—but a thank you one, with everyone’s signatures scattered around the inside. The pictures…

She looked so happy in them, playing piano and singing—the kids surrounding her.

She didn’t deserve this but… “ _Thank you_.”

 

“I can't escape this heeellllll— So many times I've trrriiied—But I'm still caaaagggged insiiiddde—”

Karasuma paused in concern at the loud… and _rough_ … singing bounced down the hall. His concern only heightened as he sluggishly translated what he was hearing just as Okajima, Yada, and Kurahashi passed by him.

“Can you _stop_ ,” Yada sighed. “Is that _really_ the song you picked?”

“Heck yeah, isn’t it cool!”

“Sure… just _stop_ singing it.”

“I can’t. It’s stuck in my head from practicing all night.”

“Yeah and now it’s stuck in mine—Oh, Karasuma-sensei, you’re back from your trip!” Kurahashi announced happily with a clap of her hands.

The kids beamed at him and he could only blink slightly.

“Yes… _what_ were you doing?”

Okajima laughed a bit sheepishly. “Bitch-sensei is doing this extra-credit thing where we pick an English song and perform it in front of the class at the start of class… and we can get a few extra points depending on how good our pronunciation is…”

“Yeah, good thing it’s not how good your _singing_ is or you would be losing points!”

“Hey!”

“Well… I’m glad you’re working hard…” he decided was best to go with.

They beamed at him again and rushed to their lockers. He shook his head bemusedly and headed for the staffroom.

 

“Eepah?”

Irina laughed. “No, no, it’s an acronym. IPA. It stands for International Phonetic Alphabet.”

Katoka frowned. “Phonetic?”

“It roughly stands for sounds—it’s an alphabet with a letter for roughly every sound in every language.”

“Oh…” Katoka looked back down to the few papers Irina had given her. “Yeah. I think I heard of that… but…?”

Irina laughed again. “IPA is what I studied when I first was working on learning other language well enough to sound fluent. You’ve been struggling with French pronunciation right? The second page is the IPA sounds for French as well as some example words—and a couple of websites, one that details French with more detail, and some where you can go on and hear each sound yourself to practice with.”

“Oh!” Katoka grinned. “This should help a lot! Thank you!” The bell rang and she looked up surprised. “Oh! Math is starting—I got to go! Thanks again!” she dashed up the steps leaving Irina warm and bubbly inside.

A bittersweet warm and bubbly, but warm and bubbly.

 

He didn’t see Irina again until he passed the classroom moving from the staff room to the bathroom. She was wandering around the students who were paired up and talking—occasionally stopping to make a remark, before moving onto the next group.

That wasn’t what caught his attention though—instead her outfit did. When she had mentioned being chilly and needing to change he hadn’t thought she would go for a full on turtleneck, but she had. And with that, the longer skirt, and the tights it was far more school-appropriate than her older outfit. Her hair being up was also something new—he’d only seen it once before—back on the beach when they had that dinner… all together it was almost cute.

Which was odd thing to think about her—and inappropriate. Karasuma shook his head and continued on to the bathroom.

 

“So your homework tonight is to choose something that interests you—baseball, gymnastics, cameras, film, art, literature—whatever, and take all the jargon you already know about it and translate that jargon into English—and then over the next few day you’ll present to the class what you’ve learned.” Irina raised a single finger. “Jargon can be confusing even to a native speaker—but figuring it out will at least allow you to speak to people in English about things you find important at a higher level.”

 

“Ugh, at least the heat kind of works here,” was the first thing he heard as he came into the staffroom after PE. “Better than the lack of air conditioning—ah, Karasuma, your back!”

Her face was red and she looked more than a little flustered at his prescance. He raised an eyebrow and continued to his seat. He had been back since yesterday—though admittedly only returning rather late in the day and not having spoken to her. “Yes. Did the students not tell you?”

“No… _little brats_ ,” she mumbled under her breath.

Karasuma sat down and set up his laptop. In the process he noticed a stack of papers on her desk. “What are you doing?”

She blinked at him, followed his eyes, and blushed more. “I…um...” her voice went small. “Grading…?”

“I thought you avoided giving work you had to grade later.”

“Yeah well… can’t avoid it entirely…”

She could and for the most part she had. Now Karasuma found himself curious. “What did you have them do?”

She twirled a pen and refused to look at him, instead poking at her tablet in a way he knew was just for show. “Um… well I found an English movie for last Friday… Coraline or something like that—spooky because you know… end of October… and we watched it in class and then I had them write a report on what they thought the plot was as well one character’s personality and motivations… you know… work on both their listening skill, vocabulary, and ability to read situations and people…”

Karasuma cocked his head slightly. “Seem well rounded.”

Her head popped up and their eyes met. “You think so?!”

“Yes. Why?”

Her face went red again and she hunched down into her turtle neck’s collar, her eyes focused on her tablet. This time he couldn’t deny that it was cute. “Nothing just… nothing…”

The bell rang. Irina didn’t move.

“Isn’t that the bell for English class,” Karasuma reminded her. Her eyes darted up to the clock and he was pretty sure she cursed in what he would guess was Chinese before she grabbed the papers off her desk and ran out the room. He watched her go bemused. She was… _different_ now.

A few of the papers had flown in her rushed grab and he shook his head, gathering them quickly—it wouldn’t hurt to deliver them before she realized they were gone. As he grabbed the one that had been left on the desk he paused—his eyes accidently catching the tablet’s still lit screen.

He couldn’t see much—and he didn’t mean to snoop as much as he would have expected her to be more careful as an assassin than leave her tablet open like this—but he did smile slightly.

“How to be a good English teacher?” was typed into the search bar.

He shook his head and headed to the door the papers in hand. The kids were right… everyone could make mistakes but everyone could work to make up for them and change as well.

Maybe even him.

Now only if that damn octopus would stop singing that animal song!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may of had to much fun coming up with different "lesson" plans for Irina to do/have done XD


	10. Autumn Time

Karasuma was away a lot lately.

It didn’t bother her—it _didn’t_.

In fact it was probably for the best. It would give her time to work on steadying herself and figuring out exactly how to act around him in the future.

And also time for that cut on his cheek to heal—maybe then she would stop feeling sick looking at him.

Her own injuries were healing slowly but steadily. Yesterday she had gotten the last of her stitches out and her bruised ribs were finally starting to fade to yellow. Her arm was the only thing left hurt—she hadn’t broken it but she _had_ sprained the tendon between her elbow and wrist rather badly. She’d been given braces for them—though she didn’t wear the wrist brace in class where the students would be able to notice.

Tonight she wore both. Alone on the back of the mountain in her sweats, hoodie, and sneakers, she crouched in a tree and considered her path to the next landmark.

She enjoyed free running but she hadn’t done much of it recently—nor was she used to free running in a wild environment having focused on an urban one until now. She needed to get back up to strength and then some—both to be useful to the kid and their plans but also—

She would need to be ready once this was all over—if they lived she would be back looking for her next job.

At that sour note she took off, jumping from tree to tree, making a few detours to rocks and once the ground before she was back up again. She was almost at her destination—a rather obscene shaped rock that the kids kept giggling about—when she suddenly turned, allowing herself to fall—catching the branch she had been standing on with her good arm and drawing her gun with her other—someone was there!

“Ah! Bitch-Sensei!” several of the boys yelped scattering.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” she snapped at them as she allowed herself to fall to the ground. “This is a _real_ gun! I could have _shot_ you!”

Her heart pounded in her ears. She took a deep breath in hope of calming it.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, calmer, slowly glancing over the boys. Isogai, Okajima, Kimura, Sugino, Maehara, and Chiba all stood before her in their combat ready gear.

“We wanted to practice free-running in the dark,” Okajima said. “We’re allowed to do it on the mountain.”

“Which seems to be what _you_ were doing,” Kimura added. “Since when could you do _that_ , Bitch-sensei?”

She snorted uncomfortably. “ _Always_ —free running is a useful skill no matter what type of assassin you are.” She stuffed her hands into the hoodies pockets. “Granted I’m more experienced in an urban environment—so I’m doing some practice.”

“You practice?”

She glared at Sugino who grinned sheepishly.

“Sorry…”

“We’re just surprised—we’ve never really seen you do anything—accept that one time when Lovro showed up,” Isogai explained.

“Yeah—how come you never train with us?” Kimura asked.

Irina kicked a foot. “Normally I try and avoid training when that octopus is watching,” she recited, knowing her main reason was really embarrassment—embarrassment and a habit of hiding her skills.

The boys seemed to buy it though and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey, Bitch-sensei, I was wondering…”

Irina blinked over to the boy who had been quiet so far. “Yes, Chiba?”

“What’s with the brace?”

Irina winced and belatedly shook the hoodie sleeve down over her hand. It was too late though as the other boys had noticed.

“Yeah! Did you hurt yourself?”

“Should you be doing this hurt?”

She sighed even as her chest warmed with their concern. “I’m _fine_ —I hurt my arm some during the… _Reaper_ incident. I figured the extra support would be… prudent while doing this.”

“Oh yeah!” Isogai realized. “You did have your arm all casted up.”

“I kind of figured you faked it to convince Karasuma-sensei to rip his shirt off,” Okajima admitted.

Irina shot him a glare while flushing. “ _No_ —it was just sprained a bit—he was just over… cautious.” That warm feeling flooded her again but this time mixed with nerves and confusion.

She turned on her heel. “You want to practice, right—well first to that big pine wins.” She took off with the boy yelling foul behind her.

 

“If you were that good at free running—how come you had Karasuma-sensei carry you up the cliff?” Maehara asked as they settled down later on some boulders for a break.

“Bet she just wanted to be carried by Karasuma-sensei,” Okajima teased.

Irina blushed and rolled her eyes.

“Free-running and a straight climb up a two hundred or _more_ foot cliff isn’t the same thing,” Irina pointed out. “Plus—I would ruin my dress and heels if I did.”

“… _And_?”

She rolled her eyes again. “ _And_ how well would I have been able to distract the guards with messed up and muddy dress and shoes? I didn’t change for a _reason._ ”

The boys’ eyes went wide with realization and Irina nodded to herself.

“In my line of work—appearance: from clothes, to hair, to nails, are extremely important—I have to prioritize them.”

“Huh—I guess you’re not _just_ vain because your vain,” Kimura said.

“Shut it, brat,” Irina snapped only to wince. She was trying not to do that as much.

“Hey, I have an idea!”

Everyone blinked over to where Isogai was sitting. He’d been quiet the last few minutes.

“…Yeah?” Chiba asked.

“Bitch-sensei—why don’t you help us with PE this week!” Isogai asked excitedly.

Irina blinked from where she was drinking from one of the boy’s canteen. “Huh?”

“Karasuma-sensei left us to do a bunch of war games while he’s out of town, like cops and robbers, capture the flag, paintball, those kind of games—he’s going to test us in them when he gets back—your pretty good at this _so_ —want to play cop once?”

“I… I’m nowhere near as good as Karasuma—especially with tracking and moving through a forest,” she warned. “I’m no soldier.”

“That’s fine—that just means we’re more likely to win,” Maehara grinned.

“Plus you can maybe use it to impress Karasuma-sensei,” Sugino suggested. “When he comes back you can show off.”

“Yeah I bet he’d be surmised about how good at free running you are!”

Irina’s face went red again and she hid it behind the canteen. “I don’t… know about that…” she trialed off, imaging Karasuma watching her like she had him… and her face only burned more.

“Why not?” Maehara asked. “You’re always trying to get him to look at you and stuff.”

“Though I guess I have noticed you’re kinda… _not_ lately,” Kimura continued.

Irina huffed. Why couldn’t these brats mind their own business? “I… I’ve stopped all that…”

“What? Why?”

“I mean yeah—it wasn’t really working, but…?”

“He’s made it rather clear he’s not interested.”

“What! But what about the rose?”

She snorted. “The rose was just a reference back to the bouquet—he was apologizing—and it’s fine. I should have stopped a long time ago I… just…” she huffed and pulled on a loose string on the cuff of her pants. To think she would be talking about this with the brats—and the _boy_ brats at that.

The boys were quiet for a long moment—long enough or Irina to feel extra awkward. She almost stood and demanded to run again—to escape it—when Kimura spoke up.

“Well—that doesn’t mean you _can’t_ show off.” He shrugged.

“Yeah—show him what he’s missing—or something,” Okajima agreed pumping his hand. “His loss if he doesn’t appreciate it right?”

“Yeah—we’ll help!” Maehara agreed.

“I…I’ll consider it…” she went with. The kids were one on one with “helping” her and she wasn’t sure if she wanted them to get more involved but… the fact they cared made her feel warm and giddy. “Let’s go—it’s getting late.”

 

“Bitch-sensei is playing cop?” Hayami frowned.

“Yeah—some of us guys went to practice free running last night and we ran into her doing the same—she’s better than we thought.” Chiba nodded.

“So I thought it could be fun and different if she played cop,” Isogai continued stretching.

“Yeah but—will she really be much of a challenge? We were getting pretty good at fighting Karasuma-sensei?”

“She _did_ manage to take the entirety of B team down…”

“Yeah but that’s because she got us off guard—we know what she can do now.”

“I did say I’m not like him,” Irina countered as she approached behind the kids. Some of the kids jumped and she saw some of their eyes go wide as they turned and found her in her training outfit. She swallowed the urge to hide or flush. “So there is going to be different rules.”

“Different rules? How?”

“First of all I get this,” she lifted up the paint gun. “Second of all there is no tagging out of “jail”—once your hit you’re “dead.”

She ignored the pouting from the sandbox.

“And third of all—instead of you getting two minutes to position yourself in the mountain—I get to go in, a minute later you do, and then a minute after that I can start tagging.

“Forth—there are two paint knives that will be randomly given out—if you can tag me everyone—even the ones in jail—wins. The Octopus will hand them out once I leave so I don’t know who has it. No switching who has the knife after either. He’ll be keeping watch.”

The whoosh behind her as the Octopus dashed over—thrilled at having a job to do—made her roll her eyes.

“That sounds reasonable, I guess,” Megu said.

“And fifth—if you end up in jail—I get to choose a penalty.” She smirked. “Later.”

“What—we don’t get to know what it is?”

“Nope. Better hope you tag me.” She turned and headed into the woods, grinning.

 

Irina was realistic. She knew she didn’t have any chance of getting everyone. They had been trained in ways she had never been and by _Karasuma_ of all people.

But she liked to think she was creative—and she had been watching their training quite regularly.

For twenty-five of them they were the target—not a soldier or an assassin. For two they were a target that had an ability to fight back—but who those two were was up to chance—and the pressure of needing to help the ones tagged from facing an unknown threat would grow the more people she tagged.

She just had to get a couple—after that she just needed to avoid getting stabbed or better yet—tag the stabbers—and she was _very_ good at noticing when someone was hiding something.

 

“I can’t believe I couldn’t get her,” Yuzuki pouted. “And then I got shot…”

“At least you didn’t get shot right away,” Mimura groaned. “What luck…”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Irina grinned. “You were extremely obvious that you had the knife.”

“What?”

“Everyone was a bit nervous about getting tagged—but you were more so Mimura. And Yuzuki as soon as you started trying to get _closer_ to me I knew you had a knife as well.”

“Oh…” they said.

“I’m just glad I didn’t get tagged,” Rio grinned. Karma slapped her back in agreement.

“Lucky you,” Okajima groaned from jail.

“You were faster than I expected,” Yuzuki continued. “And you have really good balance.”

Irina laughed slightly. “This was nothing,” she smirked. “Try doing this in a dress and barefoot—or even worse, _heels._ ”

The boys made a face of disgust. The girls looked intrigued.

“You know what—that’s something I need to do,” she decided with a smirk. “Teach the class how to walk in heels— _tall_ ones. That can be the punishment. I’ll teach everyone but the one who lost have to wear them for a whole day.”

“What?!? _Us_ to?” Maehara shouted.

“Why not—it’s good for balance,” she laughed, “and showing off your calves. It was men’s fashion first.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not going to make us _free run_ in them— _right_?”

Irina shook her head. “No—if you’re ever in heels and a fight or chase breaks out—if at all possible your first step should be to kick them off. I’ve done it for brief moments or when I needed to move extremely quickly—but barefoot is much better than a broken ankle no matter how nice the heels were.” She sighed wistfully, thinking of some of the wonderful heels she’d lost that way. “So all day _but_ gym. I’ll need everyone’s shoes sizes.”

Most of the class groaned.

 

Karasuma returned a day earlier than planned but knowing he’d be shipped out again in less than a week. He was jetlagged—and as he watched Okijama, Isogai, and Maehara stumble by in four inch heels he could only blink tiredly and wonder if he was still asleep on the plane.

“Ugh—why do girls torture themselves like this,” Maehara grimaced. “I don’t get it.”

“To show off their calves I guess,” Isogai shrugged struggling less than the other two and then he noticed Karasuma staring blankly at them. “Oh! Hey Karasuma-sensei we didn’t expect… you… to be… back yet…” his voice trailed off as he blushed sheepishly, remembering his predicament.

“What are you doing?”

“We lost a cops and robbers game to Bitch-sensei and she’s having us wear heels all day except for gym,” Maehara grinned sheepishly before Okijama tripped and snatched at his arm. “Hey! Don’t pull me down to!” he snapped at him as he swayed.

Isogai laughed. “It’s going… _well_ …” he shrugged.

Karasuma shook his head—tiredly amused—and headed to the staff room.

 

“Nagisa’s mother huh… I’ve only met her once when we went over to his house to play—but even though were weren’t really doing much or being all that loud—her reaction to us being there wasn’t very nice…” Isogai frowned.

“The thing is… Korosensei said to leave it to him… but…”

“Even if he does try to hide—he just looks more suspicious…” Kadea sighed. The entire class drooped.

“Well then… I could pretend to be your teacher—I mean, I kind of am?” Irina suggested walking over to the downtrodden group.

Rinka shook her head. “No. On paper Karasuma-sensei is our teacher. He’s already done parent meetings before as well. If our parents talk it won’t add up.”

“Ah…” Irina frowned ranking her head for another idea.

Since that shoddy cosplay the Octopus had thought up was _never_ going to work.

She should probably call Karasuma but at the same time—it was already too late. He was in America—and by the time he got one of his minions out here Nagisa’s mother would already be here presuming he hadn’t taken them all to America with him. Not to mention they would have a similar problem of not being Karasuma…

There was no good answer was there.

She would keep a tranq ready—in case she freaked—and then let Karasuma handle it from there.

 

Something about Nagisa’s mother was off. Irina stayed in the background—her prescience in E-class wasn’t exactly a secret but not exactly known either and it would just complicate things—but she could still tell. What exactly she wasn’t sure—but it felt like she was just barely holding onto a mask of some kind.

It made her uneasy, but Nagisa’s resigned fear had been making her uneasy all day.

The students went to peak through the window. She stayed by the door in case she needed to run in and handle this.

The Octopus was actually doing decently—with help from the student’s makeover—and for a moment she thought maybe things would work out okay.

And then Nagisa’s mom went _creepy_. The Octopus responded defending Nagisa’s independence—Irina couldn’t help but agree with his statement: Nagisa’s mom explained a lot about Nagisa’s abilities—and then she went _nuclear._

She stormed out thankfully without ever realizing the Octopus was a monster. Irina watched her go and sighed in a mix of relief and uncertainty. This wasn’t going to be the last of this—she _knew_ it. And Karasuma wouldn’t be back for _days_ …

“Is that a tranq gun I see?”

Irina side-eyed the Octopus, already back in his teacher garb. “What else could I do if she freaked over you being some kind of alien.”

“There was no chance of that!”

“You tore your wig off for— _no_ reason.”

“That was kind of funny and you know it,” he accused. Irina couldn’t her lip twitching slightly. He wasn’t completely wrong—the idea of Nagisa’s mom now thinking Karasuma was bald… if she wasn’t so _freaky_.

“I hope you didn’t make it worse for him,” she mused tiredly as she watched Nagisa drag his feet out the door.

The Octopus mood dropped significantly. “I hope so to…”

 

Nagisa returned the next day tired and relived. He said his mother was letting him stay. Irina found it odd and unlikely but… if he had worked it out then she wasn’t one to push.

 

The Festival was going well. The plan the Octopus had come up with was clever and frankly the food was delicious. It would be hard to go back to cup ramen after today. More people had made it up the mountain than suspected—and while he was uncomfortable with so many people near their operation he had done several sweeps of the ground—making sure traps had been pulled up and no knives or guns were left to be seen.

The target was doing a good—if ridiculous—job of staying unseen—spending most of his time observing as a fish on the top of the roof.

Irina had been in top form. They may have not have gotten to many people up the mountain—but those who did quickly found themselves paying for a full coarse and more—and the amount of them willing to run down the mountain—make it to the train station ten blocks away—and back just to bring more money was well… It was impressive.

Now if only assassins would stop jumping out of the woodworks like termites maybe he could relax. Red Eye holding his gun, Lovro sneaking round hiding his prescance, multiple others eating their food in the most hostile way possible—

Don’t get him started with Gastro and his gun. At least Red Eye had a valid hunting license.

At least for the most part they behaved, whether it was because of the target, him, or Lovro keeping them in line he wasn’t sure. As frustrating as it was—their prescience meant the kids sold more than they would have.

He hated this school, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

 

“Irina.”

Irina was proud she didn’t jump this time and she turned to find her master looming over her. “Gospodine.”

The two of them eyed each other is silence for a moment. Irina eyes fell to his chest—knowing only a short time ago he’d been in a coma from the Reaper’s attack. As for Lovro—she suspect he was judging her outfit—her naturalization.

She turned away and observed the eating crowd. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“The Octopus invited me.” He stepped up beside her. “Why didn’t you?”

She snorted. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt— _or_ that you were better?” _Or warn her…_

She eyed the crowd—easily spotting Red Eye ordering his food—Gastro, Grip, and Smog eating in another corner, Karasuma running over probably to take Gastro’s gun. There were others she recognized as well. “Did you bring them?”

“No—the Octopus invited everyone who had ever tried to kill him—I did suggest they take him up on his offer.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “I was curious.”

She hummed. “Well—you better buy everything on the menu—the kids worked hard.” She stepped away as another group crested the mountain top. Back to work.

She made it ten steps before she looked back. “And I’m… glad you’re alright.”

He laughed gruffly. “Nice to see you to, Irina.”

 

“I’m exhausted,” Irina groaned later that day. Karasuma glanced over at her from where he’d been keeping watch and then back to the mass of people below.

“You have been working hard.”

“Mhmm—and all the same plot to—so boring and exhausting.”

“It seemed rather effective.”

“Yeah well, not everyone is a square like you,” she shot him a brief, if nervous, grin before glancing away quickly looking a bit mortified. Karasuma raised an eyebrow bemused. “Innocently sexual is always an easy sell,” she continued quieter. “And I guess the teacher angle helps—especially against those…” she trailed off. Frowning Karasuma glanced over at her again to find her contaplentive and also—angry.

“What?”

“Did you now that Kaede and Yukiko were kidnapped during the school trip?” Irina asked quietly.

He nodded slightly. “I learned after the fact, but yes. The Octopus took care of it. Why?”

Irina nodded her head to the high school boys who she’d been aggressively swindingly all day. He was pretty sure they were on their third full course and looked quite a bit like they would pop. “They were the ones who did it—apparently.”

Karasuma’s lips pursed. He’d wondered why Irina had focused so much on them out of all the customers she’d been seducing into buying things. His eyes narrowed as he took a good look at the bunch. If he had his way he’d drag them to the police station instantly but… he had no proof that they had done it—and it was months ago now.

“I tried to convince the kids to put laxatives in their food or something, but they refused,” she continued frustrated.

“It would look bad on the restaurant,” he countered though admittedly he felt a little temptation.

“I could seduce them into not saying anything,” she mumbled but sighed. “I know, I know—not appropriate. I guess the kids are just better than I am as they seem unbothered.” Her eyes darted over to Kayano and Kanzaki.” She stood and stretched. “I’m going to see if I can trick another few hundred yen out of them before they leave.”

She hurried off—sweet words on her lips—and Karasuma watched her go.

 

A shot shattered the dirt just in front of their feet as they were heading down to their cars after sundown. Karasuma jumped away seeking cover instantly his heart pounding in his ears. Who was trying to kill them? Why? Where were they?

Irina didn’t move. She just scowled in the relative direction the shot had come from and raised her middle finger. “Asshole!” she yelled. “I saw you eating—I _knew_ you were here!”

Laughter came from the trees ahead and before long Red Eye popped out from a branch, gun over his shoulder. “Just checking to make sure you were in practice—for old time’s sake.”

“For old time’s sake my foot, you ass.”

He laughed even more.

Karasuma slowly removed himself from cover, glaring at the young man, and then looking to Irina. “You know him then?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Rude.” Red Eye snorted. “I’m one of Lovro’s students—he had me teach this one to notice when she’s being sniped and some other gun stuff back when she was just a cute little thing without any boobs.”

Irina growled and pulled out her own gun, shooting it at the branch next to his head. He barely flinched. “You’re lucky I’m wearing heels…”

“Never stopped you before. Maybe you _are_ out of practice.” He jumped down with a grin. “What’s this I hear about you getting totally fucked over by the Reaper?”

Irina went quiet for a second. Karasuma side eyed her. Her face had gone blank and he couldn’t really read her—but he suspected that was a poor choice to poke fun of.

“And _you_ nearly died by him so shut it,” she finally spat. Red Eye shrugged.

“True, true—want to go get a drink?”

Irina paused again this time biting at her thumb. Her eyes darted over to his and then back to Red Eye. Karasuma raised an eyebrow.

“Sure— _just_ a drink.” She glanced back at him. “Do you want to come, Karasuma?”

“I’ll pass,” he told them. Even if he had the time he couldn’t help but think it would be… odd stepping between the two obviously old acquaintances.

“Right,” she smiled a sad smile at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Tomorrow,” he agreed.

He left them there, moving on ahead, as they argued about which bar to go to. Nonetheless he was kind of glad—that Irina had something approaching a friend—even if they did _shoot_ at each other in greeting.

 

“Sooooooooo—what’s up with tall, pale, and ‘dreamy,’ kiddo?” Red Eye asked as soon as Karasuma was out of earshot while throwing his arm over her shoulder. “Must be something _good_ if you’re skipping out on some between the sheets action from _me_.”

Irina stabbed him in the side. Unfortunately all she had on her was her anti-sensei knife.

“Rude.”

“It’s nothing…” she huffed.

“Uh-huh—the cheap turtleneck says otherwise.”

She glared, he laughed.

“What is this I hear about you quitting being an assassin?”

“Meh—not forever—probably, but after trying to go after that guy—it made me think that, you know…  there is so much more in this world than just getting the shot. So I want to see it—I have enough saved up to last me awhile. I’ll figure out what I do after when the time comes.” His grip tightened on her shoulder. Irina glanced to the ground. “Kinda seems like you get it too—huh?”

Irina looked down the path Karasuma had gone and sighed. “Yeah… yeah I do.”


	11. Winter Time

Karasuma would nearly swear that the government was trying to keep him from his students. The amount of business trips—sometimes for rather inane reasons with what was coming so quickly—that he’d been on in the last few months was just… _exhausting._

He had spent more time elsewhere than at the school in the last two months.

And honestly… he _missed_ it.

Irina had started texting him information—it had started with a basic report—at his request—but it had slowly turned into random nuggets of gossip throughout the day—occasionally with pictures.

Before he would have scolded her—this was his work phone for one—but now…

He _liked_ to know what was happening, both test scores and PE results as well as silly side notes.

And, well, honestly, it seemed Irina was acting more like herself, and that made him feel better.

He hadn’t been _to_ surprised that she had been a bit off after the Reaper scenario. She had made a mistake and been faced with the guilt of that—even if she’d been easily forgiven—and especially to him he’d noticed awkwardness and even some avoidance.

He’d thought the rose would make it clear that he had forgiven her—but he supposed it wasn’t always that easy—she had shot at him. Sometimes time was needed for things to heal.

Some of her flirting had started to come back as well—her dirty comments—though now it came off more as teasing than an actual suggestion and he’d been surprised to find himself glad. Irina without her sexual humor and flirting just didn’t feel right as much as he was glad she was a bit more sparingly with it, had better timing, and was less physically forceful.

More awkward as well, and uncertain after the fact. He figured she was testing the waters—trying to figure it what was acceptable and where the line was.

He should probably establish it—but honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure either. As teachers—if nothing else—it should probably be zero while on the job.

While acting as professionals.

But… they had already been through that—hadn’t they.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been cleared to land at the Narita International Airport. Please make sure one last time your seat belt is securely fastened. The flight attendants are currently passing around the cabin to make a final compliance check and pick up any remaining cups and glasses. Thank you.”

Snapped from his thoughts Karasuma tiredly double checked his seat belt before allowing his eyes to close for the descent. He might as well get one last bit of rest before he had to rush to the school to meet with Principle Asano.

Because he _knew_ that wasn’t going to go well.

 

Karasuma waited until Sokowana was in her car and driving off before he turned and made his way towards the path to the school. He sighed and paused at the gate, brushing a hand through his hair as he stared up the mountain. The walk suddenly seemed daunting instead of a rather easy hike. Jet lag mostly but also just…

Another billion, huh… he wasn’t surprised. Asano had been like that from the beginning. The Ministry wasn’t surprised either and had already given him leave to do whatever it took to keep Asano’s permission to use his school.

Whatever they were planning—it needed to happen _here_ —it was far too late to move it.

And Asano knew that—and wasn’t _that_ a scary thought.

A scary thought because he was being _allowed_ to hold the assassination to save the world ransom. He was being allowed to hold the Ministry of Defense in the palm of his hands.

The Ministry was _that_ scared of him—of what he could do should he decided he wanted to.

With March trudging ever closer he could only hope this would be the last billion—but he rather doubted it.

 

The bell rang and Irina looked up from where she’d been quickly grading the quick translation exercise she had started class with. The kids all stopped from their group exercise of translating a script they had been given on the fly into English and began to pack up.

Irina stood up and cleared her throat. “Alright—so this is my last class before your test… and I know you’re nervous and stuff so—just go in there and do it, like, Fuck Yes!” She pumped up her fist only to be met with silence. Her smile turned nervous. Her arm dropped dejectedly.

“Great words of advice, Bitch-sensei,” Rio smirked.

“Hey! I meant it!” She crossed her arms in a defensive huff. “Sure those brats have that asshole teaching them but you have _me_ —so at least on _English_ you’ll do fine!”

“We know.”

Irina opened her mouth for another defensive resort and then closed it with a click as more students agreed with Katoka. Her cheeks going warm she plopped back down in her seat, picked up her pen, and attempted to hide through grading. “Well—go on then, before Karasuma yells at me again for making you late to gym.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want _that_ to happen.”

“I don’t know, isn’t the make-up sex supposed to be the best.”

“True.”

Irina glared at her papers. Maybe she should have toned down some of her subject matter sooner. “Go!”

Karma, Rio, and a few of the other students laughed and began filing out of the room, following the others.

Irina breathed a sigh of relief.

“The blurb you gave us to translate at the beginning of class was interesting,” Rio said stopping at her desk on her way out. “A cool kick ass assassin lady and all. What book did you get it from?”

Irina hesitated mortified, before pasting on a smile.

“Oh—just from a preview of some story or another I found online—I don’t remember the name. Just thought it was fitting,” she told her.

The brats didn’t need to know that it was a blurb from her favorite cheesy and cheap romance novel.

Especially since the premise of it was of a honeypot assassin falling in love with a secret agent while battling to be the first to kill a shared target.

Which had been her favorite since she was _fifteen_ and didn’t mean _anything!_

_No matter the fact that she’d pressed the rose into it!_

“Ah, bummer,” Rio said, but then shrugged with a grin and skipped from the room.

 

The first day of the finals came.

The three teachers of class E waited in Class E’s building. Perhaps it was silly and unnecessary—the students themselves were down on the main campus for their finals and wouldn’t be making their way up here today _or_ tomorrow—at least, they weren’t required to.

But still the three of them found themselves waiting regardless.

Or at least— _two_ of them did.

“Well… I’ll be going out for a bit. There is something I want to check.”

Irina blinked blankly at the Octopus. If there was a reason to be here at all babysitting the separation-anxiety-prone weirdo was the closest.

Karasuma seemed surprised to. “Are you sure? You don’t want to stay here and watch over them?”

“Oh, they will be fine—I taught them everything they need to get the best possible scores. Plus, this time around I wasn’t the only teacher involved.” He glanced over his shoulder. “In addition to regular lessons, I also had them each teach their best subject. By becoming the teacher one can deepen their own knowledge, and the groups teamwork approves. Karma in particular left no gaps and performed perfectly.”

Irina pouted slightly at the lack of recognition—she’d helped to! …Right? She’d been really, _really_ trying to help…

“Isn’t that what that Asano kids does,” she questioned trying to ignore the feeling.

“Yes, normally, but this time he’s been relieved of his duty of strengthening his class and instead focused on polishing his own blade.” Korosensei looked back out the window. “That’s another way of getting stronger and even I don’t know which one is better.”

He slipped out right as the two of them took in his words.

“I wonder where he’s going…?”

“I wonder what he’s checking up on,” Karasuma said back with more concern.

“Well…” Irina sighed after a moment of pure near awkward silence. “With him gone… _why_ are we here again?”

Karasuma let out a slight laugh and Irina’s eyes went wide. She had _never_ heard him laugh before.

“You know… I’m not even sure…”

He yawned then and rubbed at his temples. Irina frowned at him.

“You should go home and sleep while you have the chance.”

He grunted but then dropped his hand. “You’re probably right…”

Irina swallowed. Now he was saying _she_ was _right_ —today was a day of firsts!

They packed up their things and began a hike down to their cars. As they drew closer to the main campus Irina’s worry built again.

“I hope things are going alright—who knows what that asshole did this time.”

Karasuma hummed tiredly at her side, looking up at the sky. “They should be just finishing English now—so far they should be fine.”

“You think?”

He nodded slightly. “It’s their best taught subject after all—The Target’s teachings, the students teachings—and then your teachings coming together—I’d imagine that more than prepared them for whatever Asano may have to throw at them.”

“Do you… do you really think I helped all that much?”

He gave her an odd look and she felt silly—enough so to look away.

“I’m just saying—mostly I helped with pronunciation and from what I’ve seen that’s not tested very much in these exams. Not to mention teaching them to speak colloquially goes against proper grammar…”

He was silent for a long moment. “Perhaps—but from what I’ve heard you’ve increased their vocabulary significantly—as well as their listening skills.”

“Heard?”

“The students talk—and so does the Octopus.”

Her face burned more and she kept her head down to hide the silly smile she knew she was wearing. “Oh…”

This was absolutely not helping her get over her stupid crush… but…

She wasn’t sure she minded.

They finished their walk in silence.

 

 “Hey, Bitch-sensei!” Rio waved her hand as Irina made it over the cusp of the mountain on the first day back after finals. She blinked at the energetic student and the fact Karma was standing right next to her grinning.

That was _never_ a good sign.

“Yes, Rio?”

“Guess what! I googled a few of the lines from that blurb you gave us and found the book!”

Irina blushed slightly and fought to keep a straight face. “Oh, did you?”

“Yup—and guess what the blurb for it is,” she pulled out a piece of printed paper and Irina wanted to die. At least their wasn’t _too_ much of an audience—just a few of the students had noticed the commotion so far—and better yet, neither the Octopus or Karasuma was around.

_Charlotte Wishmore is the best Honeypot in the business with hundreds of kills to her name. She has more than enough experience to handle her newest hit—Oil Tycoon Anthony Black—at least she did until she realized she wasn’t the only person interested in him. Alex Superhalk, Secret Agent of M16, has his sights on the tycoon himself for his own reasons. It’s a race against time as they fight to be the first to finish the mission—getting in each other’s way—and maybe… Falling in Love?_

 “Doesn’t that sound similar?” Karma said with a smirk. “What chances.”

“Yes—but it is kind of stereotypical,” she mumbled. “There are probably plenty of books with that premises more or less—having searched assassin it isn’t _that_ odd one came up…”

“Oh—are you saying your love is stereotypical?” Karma asked with big faux-innocent eyes.

“Oh— _shut_ it, brat—it’s not like that,” she growled at him and they both laughed—and she could hear a few giggles from around them as well.

Deep breaths.

She knew she shouldn’t of had used that book—she _knew_ it!

Or at least she should have known it.

“What are you laughing about?” Karasuma said from behind her and Irina froze solid, mortification shocking each limb as she saw the growing smirks on the two troublemaker’s lips.

“N-nothing—”

“Rio figured out which book Bitch-sensei had us translate last English class,” Karma started with a grin.

“Yeah—get a load of this summery!” Rio continued bringing the paper up to read again.

Irina darted, hand coming around the paper just in time for Karma to snatch it from her, leaving a stinging paper cut.

“Ouch! _Brat!_ ”

He laughed and the two of them ran for the school building, paper waving tauntingly over Karma’s head.

“Get back here you fuckers,” she shouted, chasing after. Leaving a very bewildered but also bemused Karasuma behind.

 

“Why is everyone who shows up here _insane_ ,” Irina hissed, her eyes still wide and her chest still heaving. His own heart was still pounding in his ears—the staff room having been _right_ next to the section demolished. Dust and debris had fallen on them though thankfully the roof had held. “Takaoka, Nagisa’s mom, this asshole—is there something in the _water_ of this country!”

 “I hope you’re not counting me,” he said offhandedly watching Asano carefully as he ordered the children to set up the desks to his liking and then shooed them outside.

She snorted, “Yeah well— _your_ superhuman, the Octopus is a freaking octopus, and the kids are all gun ho to kill their beloved teacher,” she grumbled and he found he couldn’t exactly disagree.

“What in the world is he doing,” he mumbled as Asano pulled out grenades—one a _normal_ grenade.

“Crazy,” Irina mumbled back.

“Well? Ready to take the challenge? Even teachers must face tests to their resolve. If I were you… I’d do this without a second thought!!”

“He does realize that his school isn’t greater than the world right—how hard would it be to just make him disappear,” Irina mumbled.

“Harder than you think—apparently,” Karasuma admitted. She gave him a side-eyed glance but he stayed mum, staring at the scene before him. Getting the Target to leave was all part of Asano’s plan—and if he actually managed—they didn’t have time to set up another place to kill him at.

But the Target _wouldn’t_ just leave—he knew that now. Instead he would offer his neck to the sword and bet on this gamble completely stacked against him all on his own. And considering the calculations—this plan had a higher chance of succeeding than any of theirs ever had.

Using his very status as a “strong person” as his weapon, the Principle’s plan was flawless.

This very well could be the end of this.

So… why did he feel _unhappy_ with that?

Asano stepped back and the Target sweated over the textbook—a tentacle positioned just short of opening the page.

The book opened—the Target panicked—it exploded.

Karasuma and Irina both ducked around the door in order to dodge the anti-sensei BBs that flew past at high speeds. They peaked back carefully to find the Target melted and drooping.

“This might actually work,” Irina muttered. She didn’t sound happy about it either—but she at least had an excuse—if it did she wouldn’t get a cut of the prize.

In the end thought it didn’t work. The Target easily finished the other workbooks through sheer memorization—and saved Asano when he suicidely went to do his own. The demolition was stopped though they were left to clean up on their own, and Karasuma personally made sure Asano and the crew left the mountain—just to be safe.

And—through it all—he was _relived._

He shouldn’t have been. This had been the closest they had ever gotten and they had failed. The deadline was _so_ very close.

So why was he relived.

Did he… _not_ want the Target to die…

No… even though the Target on a… _personal_ level was more tolerable than one would have thought he still was holding the world hostage for reasons nobody knew. Karasuma would see him killed for the rest of the world’s sake. He had no misgivings about that.

But then… _why?_

Kaede had _tentacles._

Kaede wasn’t Kaede.

She was Akari Yukimura.

She had watched movies—dramas with her in it— _how_ had she missed it.

Kaede—or rather Yukimura—had never stood out to her. She wasn’t bad—a sweet cheerful girl—who had an issue with boobs but otherwise…

Irina had missed it. Completely and utterly missed that she was acting.

_And it was her job to notice things like that!_

She was _good_. She was _more_ than good. The tentacles may have helped with that—she had no idea what their capabilities were—but _damn_ was she good.

And if things didn’t go perfectly tonight—she would be dead.

Murderer—her sister killed by that Octopus—her sister who had been the kid’s first teacher…

She wasn’t surprised—oh she was about it being Yukimura’s sister—or about it being their former teacher—but she wasn’t at all surprised about the Octopus being a murder.

He was holding the world hostage after all—though that had never seemed in character.

But he also just knew too much—about killing—about assassination—to have been anything but. It took one to see one.

Karasuma seemed at least as disturbed—and while she knew he was worried for Yukimura—she had noticed his eyes widen slightly when the Octopus had mentioned he’d tell them his entire story.

Karasuma knew something—something he rather the kids not know.

She wasn’t surprised. He probably knew a lot they didn’t know.

She just hoped things turned out okay.

 

Yukimura Akari had needed hospital care.

After everything that had happened—at least _that_ he could deal with.

He’d called in rides—to the hospital for her and home for everyone else. They didn’t even bother to fight it—quiet and horrified and sullen.

Irina had accompanied them to the hospital. He rather expected the Target did as well at a distance. Admission was enlightening.

Yukimura Akari had complete control of her own health care. She had near complete control of her own life—from her housing to her career. She told them not to bother alerting her father—he was likely to busy anyway. In a way he wasn’t surprised—she’d managed on her own to create an identity that had fooled Akano and the Ministry of Education all on her own. She had great skill—scarily so.

All the students were turning out to.

Once they were sure she was settled—and the first round of tests had been done—they made their way out. It was late now—past midnight by a good amount. He stared blearily into the darkness. Sokowana had left them a car to use to get home—but he wasn’t sure where it had been left.

He was tired.

“Karasuma.”

He paused and looked over to his silent companion. She hadn’t talked much as all since the fight. “How much of that did you know?” Irina asked into the silence of the hospital parking lot. He examined her—she wasn’t looking at him, eyes scanning the dark and empty lot, face weary.

“I knew he’d been a human,” he told her without hesitation. She looked over to him without surprise—still weary. “I knew he’d been an assassin—though not that he’d been the true Reaper—and I… I knew that he did not have a choice about the explosion—though nothing of his character or provocation to violence.”

She looked away. She didn’t say anything.

She looked so tired.

_“Hey Karasuma… do you really understand what it means to kill someone.”_

He felt so tired.

“Let’s find the car.”

 

Things had turned out okay.

Not _great._

But okay.

Kaeda—ah, Yukimura was alive—and tentacle free.

The kids were all devastated and horrified by the true story of the Octopus.

Nagisa had met and blasted past her expectation in his kissing ability—and she took full credit in that—though he still had a way to go.

Kaeda—ugh, it was still weird to think— _Yukimura_ was injured and weak. They had to take her to the hospital.

Shiro had showed his face—he’d been the doctor who had experimented on the Octopus in the first place. Irina wasn’t surprised but she was tired. Maybe it was hypocritical for her to think—as an very illegal assassin—but she would have hoped that the man who was responsible for the moon blowing up—and the threat the earth may do the same—maybe wouldn’t be allowed to roam free to do as he wanted.

Then again—despite the Octopus attempt to say otherwise—she was still rather convinced the government—if not multiple—had been very aware of his research.

He had a new minion as well—another person mutated and screwed up she was sure.

Karasuma had known most of it—and she wasn’t surprised, and now she knew why he’d been so uncomfortable at the idea of the kids learning.

She had a hard time believing they could kill their beloved teacher now. Seeing only the science experiment victim, the tragedy of a romance lost, the looming deadline he couldn’t control.

Not the risk the world still truly faced, not the fact he’d admitted to killing thousands of people—though she certainly couldn’t really judge him on that— and not even his _own_ wishes.

He’d set this whole killing school up himself after all. He’d could have hidden away, of fought, or flew off into space—but he hadn’t.

She was still rather convinced he’d kill himself before allowing the world, his student’s futures and potentials, to end.

And now after that story—she was rather convinced the only reason he hadn’t done it yet was because of his promise to his teacher.

But he wanted them to do it.

Which may be a cruel wish—but it was his all the same.

She was tired.

Things had ended up okay.

But only just okay.

 


	12. Saving Time

_“Hey Karasuma… do you really understand what it means to kill someone.”_

He hadn’t understood her words at the time.

Even after the Reaper—he’d thought he understood but he hadn’t—not completely.

He did now though.

And in some ways… it was only now he truly understood the cruel weight they had put on these children’s shoulders and tied to their self-worth.

Winter Break came and went—and despite the looming deadline he finally got some real rest.

But once he’d made up his severe backlog of sleep—he found the solitude he’d been so use to suffocating.

Irina’s words—the looks on the students’ faces the last he saw of them—the scope of this mission—it played in his head over and over and he threw himself into what work he did have in an attempt to silence it.

It didn’t work very well.

Irina didn’t text him once during break—an odd silence from her constant texts and updates from his business trips.

He… he _missed_ it…

And he was worried about her—almost as much as the students—she’d looked as tired as he’d felt the last he saw of her.

But he wasn’t comfortable texting her. What would he even say?

He was glad when term started.

 

Irina had a quiet winter break.

A quiet and lonely winter break—but what could she do. It would be nothing more than selfish to try and drag the kids out as they processed—so beyond keeping up with them through the rare text—and a single visit to Yukimu—ah, Kaede—she’d said she still wanted to go by the name—she’d spent it alone.

At Christmas Eve she found a church and sat in the far back through the midnight service. Her parents—like much of Serbia—had been very religious and she’d been raised in that culture for twelve years.

It was in memory of them that if at all possible she went to church for Christmas and Easter. She honestly wasn’t sure what to consider herself. She believed in god—if only because she hoped her parents were safe and happy somewhere. She didn’t believe in an all-powerful god, instead of something weaker—or something that only had power over the afterlife because otherwise… otherwise she would have to believe in a cruel, cruel god. It was one or the other to her, and she much preferred the former.

She would never meet with them again—she knew this—her life was too stained by blood and sex.

She’d made her peace with that a long time ago.

Other than that she was alone—stayed in her apartment and idly watched TV or scrolled the web in an attempt to ignore the whispers in the back of her head and the numbness she felt. The fear she felt.

Her dreams were back and stronger as well. Sometimes the kids showed up in them. Sometimes they were the one holding the gun. Sometimes they were the ones she was killing. Sometimes they were killing each other.

She was tired—She was worried.

She was so, _so_ glad when the first day back arrived.

 

The kids were quiet and sullen. She wasn’t surprised.

Still it... _hurt_ to see them so conflicted, so unsure.

So distraught.

So close to that tipping point—the one you couldn’t return from.

_The choice._

She didn’t have the answers—should they kill him—should they not. Perhaps it would be better if they didn’t. Karasuma had been too relaxed since the Reaper incident for there not to be _some_ kind of plan in the works. In the end the kids had never really been the best chance—not on paper—they were a distraction for the real plans. They didn’t need to be murderers. They didn’t need to kill their beloved teacher. They didn’t have to risk losing part of themselves.

But… after so much time—to just quit on their goal they’d put so much effort into. Put so much of their self-worth into… that would hurt them as well—especially if the Octopus still died.

There was no good answer.

But… she couldn’t… she _couldn’t_ let them turn out like her.

She couldn’t let them fall into the world she was trapped in—no matter what they decided.

“The most foolish way to kill someone… is to try and kill them recklessly—out of emotion or greed without a plan.” She started leaning up against the door. The kids startled as they realized she was there and she glanced over them. “Not even animals are that foolish.”

“Bitch-sensei?” Hinano asked quietly.

“And the second most foolish way to do it—is to kill someone while killing your own emotions.” The kids shifted, glancing amongst each other, and she knew she’d hit a cord. “You can’t kill him like I could—because you will lose a lot in exchange.” Her eyes darted to the floor for a second and she took a deep breath before turning away.

“Just think thoroughly about it you Brats—so that you don’t kill the most important feelings inside of you.”

She left them, walking only a few steps until she was face to face with Karasuma—who she knew must have overheard her. She ignored him as he stepped to the side to let her past, and then followed her into the staff room.

For a short while it was quiet—as he set up his laptop and settled at his desk. Irina just plopped down and stared at a dark corner, her mind whirling with disjointed thoughts.

“Do… do you think they will continue the assassination?” he asked, and Irina turned to him. “And if they do—that they will be able to do so full-heartedly—or without hesitation?” The way he was looking at her was… _different_ than before. Perhaps this is what the Octopus had been talking about—being seen—and it wasn’t that he hadn’t seen her before— _especially_ since the Reaper—but now.

It was now like… he both _wanted, needed_ , and held in _high esteem_ the answer she would give, no matter what the answer was.

It was off-putting, if not in a bad way.

She looked away. “Maybe. Some of them at least. It will likely vary.”

He sighed and rubbed at his temples. “If only the Octopus hadn’t told them.”

_“No.”_ He blinked up at her and she vaguely realized she’d said that with quite a bit of force. “They _needed_ to know. How much worse do you think it would have been if they found out after the fact?” She glanced away again, biting at her thumb without thinking. “Plus—they always _did_ know—not his story but the weight of the task—they just willed themselves into not thinking about it. It was an illusion that was always going to break—had to break—killing shouldn’t be taken that lightly. And If not before it would have had than just as or right after. At least this way… at least this way they have a chance to _think_.”

She glanced up to see his reaction to see him thoughtful. He didn’t share his thoughts and eventually she turned back to staring at that dark corner.

 

Irina wasn’t entirely sure of this war idea—it seemed just as likely to split the group further that bring them together—but she could only hope it would work.

At least the Octopus had managed to get the kids to share their feelings—to think about them and why they felt the way they did—and to hear each other as well. Maybe they _wouldn’t_ end up like her.

That was all she was asking for. Please. _Please_ don’t end up like her.

Though if they did… at least they had the skills for it. Ryūnosuke’s ability to turn a bb gun into a sniper rifle, Yukiko and her strategic knowledge, Karma and his foresight, Kōki and his reconnaissance ability, Kirara and her ability to be completely terrifying and stealthy—Nagisa and his pure assassination talent.

Hiding behind Karasuma—she would have never thought of it though it was ingenious in hindsight.

And all the other students and their drive and abilities meshed into one.

She had known they were good—talented—better than kids their ages had any right to be—but until now she’d never seen them show their claws like they did during this war.

They had raised some outrageous assassins—and most of the time she was proud about that.

Even if sometimes she wasn’t so sure she should be.

 

They were setting themselves up for failure. But what could he do. Karma had surrendered and the deal had already been made.

But still… he couldn’t help but worry—the disappointment that would hit when they failed—or if someone else got the final kill.

Someone _would_ if they didn’t. He _knew_ that.

Even if they somehow miraculously managed where thousands of adult scientists hadn’t and cured the Target—he was still a mass murderer with thousands of confirmed kills under his belt. He’d already been up against the death penalty before. He’d gleefully thrown his power around even if it was all for show—he wouldn’t just be let free to do as he pleased.

Irina seemed relieved. At the result perhaps but he thought more likely—as he looked out over the students—because the hesitations and uncertainty was gone. The strife that threatened to split them apart was gone.

They were _smiling_ again.

He was a bit relieved at that as well. He just hoped it would last.

“If this is what you have decided then it can’t be help,” he told the gathered kids. “But… I have one condition.” They went quiet—their elated smiles dimming slightly. “You only have until the end of the month to save him. You might be taking a break from assassination—but there are plenty of other people who aren’t.  So promise me that no matter how January turns out come February and beyond will be spent giving your all to the assassination. If someone’s going to kill him, I want it to be _you.”_

He panned over the students, trying to make eye contact with as many of them as he could. “Whether you kill him or save him… give it your all.”

 

“I don’t get it!” Irina snapped as she stomped ahead of him to the staff room. “Like, _sure_ , it would cause liability issues for _you_ —you’re still freaking out about Ritsu and her super hax abilities—but what liability could it cause _me!_ I’m an _illegal_ assassin as it is! I’m pretty sure I was declared _dead_ at _twelve!_ ”

She thrusted the door open and turned to let him go first but mostly to pout at him with crossed arms. He sighed and rubbed at his temples.

“I don’t even want to think about what they might be planning,” he almost groaned as he walked passed before slumping into his seat. This was going to be a nightmare to deal with. Liability or no he’d be the one to deal with it to. It was his _job_ to know what was going on. The fact that he didn’t would be just as incriminating.

He didn’t want to stop the students. They were approaching this with some idea which was better than expected. He had told them to give it their all. He just wished he could think of a better way that whatever mess they were about to cause.

“Well _I_ want to know,” Irina scowled plopping into her own seat before sighing. “I never get to be involved…”

Karasuma just rested his head in his hands and sighed. Ignoring the coming clusterfuck—he also had _no_ idea what to do about Ritsu? Could he really just ignore it? Ignore the fact that a rouge AI could get into any connected computer unchecked. That was extremely dangerous—even ignoring the fact she was using the _internet_ as a teaching tool.

But if he did inform the government—then they would inform her creators—and likely take her away or at least attempt to restore her defaults. Could he really do that to her?

Because—AI or no, machine or no, not-quite sapient or no—she’d become a student in his mind. Could he hurt one of his students?

Potentially _kill_ one of his students.

_No_. No he couldn’t.

Maybe he could just…. Have a talk with her…

That would work… _right_?

He needed a nap.

Karasuma blinked up tiredly when he noticed Irina was giggling. Giggling at him he realized as she covered her mouth and glanced away when she noticed his gaze. “What?” he snapped out defensive.

“I know you’re having, like, a legit issue right now and it shouldn’t be funny and all…” she admitted with a sheepish smile. “But I don’t think I’ve _ever_ seen you _that_ expressive.”

He grunted and looked away in a sulk.

Irina giggled more.

 

“Hey Karasuma!” Irina yelled, knocking on the window of the staff room, looking amused. He glanced over at her bemusedly and got up to open it.

“What?”

“Found out what the kids and octopus were doing,” she pointed up into the sky.

Karasuma’s jaw dropped as he caught sight of a landing pod being guided down by the Target.

“Got to say— _not_ what I was expecting,” Irina continued sounding impressed, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and shaking her head. “What do you bet that Nagisa and Karma are on there—I _did_ find it suspicious that they were _both_ absent today?”

He didn’t answer, just vaulted over the window frame and rushed towards the landing zone.

 

Unfortunately, despite his ill-reasoned hopes, it was just as real when he made it to the pool.

“Well this is quite something, Octopus. I can’t even imagine the amount of apologies the authorities will want,” he said darkly as he approached the Target from behind. The Target turned to him and he swore his teeth glinted. He narrowed his eyes.

“Just tell them I bullied the students into doing it,” he told him. “And since you didn’t know—you don’t have to take responsibility.”

If only things were so easy.

“Also, ‘this quite something’ of mine has produced quality results. Sending two humans into space instead of dummies has produced significant data. With this alone there is value in sending up another rocket. Furthermore, Ritsu managed to find a more efficient trajectory into space—I’m sure you can imagine the value in that! And additionally, I’ve compiled a report regarding the problem with the parachute construction and how to solve them!”

He handed him a phone that he assumed held all the data. Karasuma stared at it and sighed.

“You villain,” he mumbled and the Target snickered before being pulled away by the celebrating students towards the classroom.

He took a minute to compose himself, knowing his phone would be ringing any second, trying to imagine how he could even begin to explain all that was happening.

“Are you okay?” Irina asked quietly, pausing next to him. He glanced at her. “You’re not going to end up in too much trouble… right? You didn’t know.”

“The fact I didn’t know is a problem in of itself,” he admitted to her as quietly.

“…Karasuma?”

He sighed but then straightened. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”

 

“Less than one percent is it?” his superior’s superior said. Karasuma nodded stiffly as he eyed the gathering of people—governmental officials, scientists—in person and on screens. “But not zero.”

He nodded again slower. He’d known as soon as the students had started celebrating that they were wrong. One percent was still one percent. Seven Billion lives couldn’t be put on the line even for one percent—not for the man who the target had been. Not for someone so dangerous.

Probably not even if he was the most well-liked, influential person on earth.

 “So that monster has them that wrapped around his tentacle,” his superior’s superior wondered to himself. Karasuma bit his tongue before he said something he regretted. While the children were fond of the Target—and perhaps that wasn’t ideal—he didn’t think it was fair to call them wrapped around his tentacle. “To have them do his bidding to keep him alive.”

But he couldn’t so easily correct that impression—not and keep up the farce of the space mission.

“At least it didn’t realize the real reason we sent up that rocket,” another man said. His superior’s superior gave him a look and he went silent. Karasuma knew better than react to the mention. He hadn’t meant to know it.

“Despite the findings—and this… excursion they went on—the students have decided to keep up their assassination attempts up until they graduate unless and until the governments of the world retracts the bounty,” he informed them.

“And you believe they will honestly attempt so—after being so cheerful he will ‘live’” someone from America asked with a poor accent. “That they aren’t treating it as a game where you only ‘mostly’ get dead?”

“They seem eager to do so,” was all he could offer.

“Fucked in the head,” someone said. “Can’t say I’m surprised being taught by that thing.”

“Bah—it does not matter—I could care less if they sing silly songs and make flower crowns and friendship bracelets all day—as long as they do their job and keep him on that mountain,” another said. The first man nodded.

He left not long after—in significantly less trouble that he expected though he rather imagined there was a big black mark on his record. He could and would live with that but…

He had a bad feeling about all this.

 


	13. Valen-Times

She was an idiot. Why was she doing this on Valentine’s Day? He was likely to not show up because of it.

But… she couldn’t think of another way to get him properly alone away from the school—especially a way that was nonsuspicious to people who may be watching…

And yeah maybe she could have done it a few days before or after but… was it so wrong to want to pretend… just a little.

She just hoped he showed up.

“Irina?”

_Oh thank God._

She smiled at Karasuma who hovered in the doorway. “Hello, Karasuma.”

“A high class dinner on Valentine’s Day?’ he told her eyeing the settings in front of him as he approached the table. “I will admit I’m impressed.”

Irina smiled, just thrilled he’d come. Then she smirked with a laugh. “I hear here in Japan you have to return the favor three fold on white day…” Her smirk grew. “What you repay me with better be at _least_ three times as good…” she licked her lips and winked.

Karasuma stared—and then got up. “I’m leaving.”

_Why had she said that? Why had she said that? Ugh—Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! She_ knew _it was inappropriate and he’d react that way! She was ruining everything! Why did she always do this!_

 “Wait—Hey— _Don’t_ go! Stay and eat—It was a joke!” She lunged forward and grabbed onto his arm. “You can repay me normally—hell, I’d be happy with _pocky_!”

Karasuma stared down at her completely deadpanned and then sighed. “The discrepancy between this high class environment and your low crass behavior is alarming,” he told her dryly, but he moved to sit back down. Irina let go like she was burned—face flushed—and meekly sat back down into her own seat.

Now it was awkward—great. She was an idiot.

_What to do—what to do—oh!_

She pulled out a small thing of chocolates from her bag. “Hinano asked me to give you this,” she explained at his raised eyebrow. “She couldn’t do it herself since you aren’t around much lately.”

She looked down at the table and shook her head a bit bemusedly. “‘I’ll steal him away from you the first chance I get’ that’s what she said to me. I swear she’s looking too much into this—it’s not like we’re dating.”

Her smile turned a bit forced—maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned that bit. But Karasuma just huffed a laugh and took the chocolates, sliding it into an internal pocket of his jacket.

_Yes! Win!_

 

Karasuma considered Irina as she took a moment to sip her wine and as the server appeared to serve the first course.  They began eating, sometimes talking about what he missed while he was gone, and more often in a comfortable silence. It was familiar.

And not in a bad way either.

“Romantically or obligatory, there were more chocolates flying round than I expected—sometimes _extremely_ literally.” Irina huffed her own laugh and Karasuma’s lip quirked at the thought. “Perhaps they had considered the off chance that this may be their last Valentine’s Day. Then again…” She trailed off thoughtfully, picked up her after dinner coffee and took a long sip, her eyes closing as she appreciated it.

They snapped open—staring at him focused and serious. He blinked slightly startled. “So… how are things on your end?” She placed the cup down. “You know—about the assassination. ‘Yay! We got the probability down to one percent!’.” She snored. “Like it would just end there.”

Karasuma considered her. Her voice had gone dry and there was an edge to it that she rarely showed. It was obvious she already knew part of the answer—that what she was looking for was confirmation.

She had arranged a completely private room at a trusted restaurant on Valentine’s day—which anybody who had any idea of her past actions would see as just another flirtatious attempt—all to ask him this question. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d cased the place and searched for bugs before he arrived as well. The host had made an offhand joke of him keeping the lady waiting—she had been here a significant time before he had.

She’d done everything to get an answer from him—and based on the stern look in her eyes, and the defensive twist to her lip—he suspected she didn’t expect to get much regardless and was willing to fight for it.

_Heh._ She just kept surprising him—didn’t she?

“Well—I was planning on telling you this.” he started and her head jerked slightly in an aborted movement of surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that.

She had reason not to—he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. Irina was just a contractor—a foreign and illegal one at that—who as far as the government felt—didn’t need to know anything unless she was directly contributing to that plan.

He wasn’t supposed to tell her—but it wasn’t as if she didn’t already know most of what he did just from inferring.

He could hint at it—he was sure that was more what she had suspected to get—but frankly he was tired of all this bullshit.

“My main job is to take command of Class E,” he explained. “So I won’t know much of anything until right before it happens—but yes, there is an enormous international assassination project in the works.”

Her lips pursed and her eyes drifted from his in thought before she nodded firmly once. She didn’t push for more—which was both surprising and not at all.

“I’ll let you know when it’s about to start,” he told her in full sincerity. Her eyes darted back to his in surprise though she dipped them quickly in an attempt to hide it. At one point he would have wondered if that was real or fake—but now…

Make no mistake, she was still extremely good at what she did and he suspected that if she was truly trying she could conceal something from him, but even so…

There was something _very_ authentic about her actions sometimes.

He took the last dredges of his coffee.

 

Irina was quiet on the walk to the train stations. She had been quiet since he’d mentioned the plan. Thoughtful.

Quiet enough he almost startled when she spoke again. “You know… Karasuma…”

She wasn’t looking at him—was notably looking the other way. He couldn’t get a good read on her face but her voice was… _sad_. “On the off chance that the world explodes… I would be okay with it.”

He raised his eyebrows. That was a bit alarming.

“At least… in regards to that brats.”

She kicked at a loose stone and it skipped down the sidewalk in front of them. “If they _do_ kill him—then they’ve killed their beloved teacher who they love and thought they saved. If they _can’t_ kill him—well then they can’t kill him and they are left with a feeling of failure and loss lurking deep within.”

He looked away. He’d been feeling similarly lately.

“On the other hand,” she continued softly. “What happens if they wind up exhausting all their ideas and methods only for some big organization to kill him using methods far beyond their reach… _Or_ , what if he’s killed by _Shiro_ —and they have to suffer as their beloved teacher dies a cruel and painful death.”

His lips pursed at the thoughts. None of them were pleasant—and yet very possible.

“… I’m… I’m _scared_ Karasuma,” she admitted and he realized belatedly she had stopped walking and he’d left her several meters back.  He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Failure, powerlessness, trauma…” her voice was so soft he could barely hear it. “It feels like no matter what happens their future will become twisted… they have _such_ innocent faces… I don’t want to see them turn into adults with twisted hearts…”

He turned properly to look at her. She was staring away unseeingly. She cared far more than he would have ever thought when she first arrived.

Perhaps… _too much_.

“Irina.”

She snapped to attention, looking lost for a second before she focused on him. He took a few steps forward until he was right in front of her. “When this job is over—you should quit being a hitwoman. You’re not suited for it.”

Instantly the sad but curious expression darkened. Her entire posture shifted—more alert and ready. _“Excuse me?”_

“Your emotions are too deep—you feel too strongly—and over the last year those emotions have reached a fatal point,” he explained, from his peripherals he could see her hand start to tremble. “Just from seeing your feelings over the students—from now on, your job will only become harsher for you.”

He didn’t want to see that—he didn’t want to watch Irina regress back to how she was with the Reaper.

Numb. Lifeless. Almost Dislocated from reality…

She didn’t deserve that.

He didn’t want her to just disappear when this was all over.

Suddenly her gun was out and he was catching her trembling hand, pulling it down to safely point to the ground.

He wasn’t particularly concerned—for one he was rather sure it was filled with anti-sensei bullets, which would bruise like hell at this range but otherwise be harmless, but on the other…

He didn’t think she would shoot no matter how angry she got.

“Easy for _you_ to say, Mr. Straight and Narrow,” she snapped, smirking but her eyes were dark. “You can’t blow off this desperate life I’ve made for myself. Dancing with death to many times to count—after ten years of life tainted by sin—I have no right to go back to a place touched by the sun.”

That rhetoric again—the tainted words of the Reaper—but words he expected Irina had believed long before.

Her eyes drifted down but not far. It took him a second but he realized she was looking at his cheek. At the light scar her bullet had left.

The bullet that could have very easily hit his head, or his heart. Irina was not that bad of a shot and he had been completely unaware of her until he was hit.

“Every experience can open new paths,” he said lowly. “That’s what the students have taught us. Even without us worrying… whatever difficulties they meet, their experiences in this assassination will help them find their own path in life, their own answers.”

Irina’s smirk had fallen but her eyes were still dark, defensive. Perhaps he had started this the wrong way.

“Irina,” he continued softening his voice. “Come work at the Ministry of Defense. Even in peace your experiences and skills will certainly be of use.”

She blinked in surprises, for a second her dark look weakened though she seemed bewildered.

“We have an intelligence department that won’t pry into your past,” he assured. He would make sure of that. “And there you can save more lives than you have killed.”

For a second more she just stared at him, emotions passing through her eyes that he couldn’t properly name. Finally she dropped her gaze and her grip on her gun weakened. He took in quietly and pocketed it for the moment, noting she hadn’t agreed.

He turned. “And every morning you can stop by the shrine on the way to work and pray for the people you’ve killed. That should be enough.”

He heard her scoff. “I’m closer to a Christian than anything,” she told him blandly. “And besides I don’t have any relatives in Japan.”

For a second he paused. Then he glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t you get it? There aren’t any churches near my house.”

Irina stared blankly at him for a moment—then he watched as her eyes went wide in slow realization and then her cheeks burned red.

“W-what?”

He turned and kept walking. She knew what he meant.

“What? Karasuma are you saying what I think your saying—!”

“I said, what I said,” he grunted.

“But… but… it’s improper for a man and a woman to live alone under the same roof!”

He rolled his eyes. “They find your own place.”

“No! No! I’ll live with you! I’ll live with you!”

 

Karasuma entered his home and closed his door. He stared into the dark spartan corners of his house and frowned.

_Why had he said that?_

Despite the fact he had burst her bubble only months ago—somehow in the back of his mind… it hadn’t really hit him until now that soon she wouldn’t be bugging him every day anymore.

And he should be glad about that but…

As foolish of an idea that it was… he would miss it—if only a little.

It had been an entirely spur of the moment idea—as he had listened to her worry for the students, the implication of how she sees herself—how _sad_ she looked.

The epiphany he’d had before, “Whether you save a life or you kill… I suppose it depends on the people and world around you,” had gone through his mind.

He didn’t want her to have to go back to a world that was obviously hurting her—and the idea of the Ministry of Defense had passed through his mind and he had jumped on it without any more thought.

And that was a bit alarming—he wasn’t one for spur of the moment ideas when he could instead think it through—but with further thought it was a good idea. He wasn’t upset with offering it. Irina was well suited for a multitude of different jobs—she would do well there. The job should be easier on Irina emotionally, and even his superiors would likely be happy with his “turning” of her.

But living with him…

_Why did he say that?_

Knowing Irina she would take that the wrong way. Her in his most private space… it made little sense. She was a successful assassin, surly she could afford an apartment nearby until she started getting paid, which would surely be a decent wage, and if not probably could get a stipend until she was settled in, and for that matter he certainly hadn’t made the offer seem temporary. Frankly and honestly he trusted her enough to not feel the need to personally watch her so closely, so that possibility was out as well.

He just—didn’t get what had made him say such a thing, but… well, it would be _rude_ to take back the offer now… and if nothing else she would keep him on his toes.

 

Irina giggled freely as she fell back onto her bed—giddy and carefree. Her smile was so wide it hurt as she pulled her body pillow to her and hid her face in it.

Come April she was going to be _living_ with Karasuma!

Come April… she was going to still be in Japan!

She wasn’t entirely sure where Karasuma lived but it was close enough—she could still see the brats and of course…

She would still see Karasuma…

She had been thinking… she had been thinking… that after this was all over…

Irina smile fell and she turned to her side, lowering the pillow to hug tightly.

She had thought she would be gone. Maybe she would have kept in touch… or visited everyone once in a while but… after going back into that dangerous world fully—could she have really gone back to those kids.

Groaning she hid her face again in the pillow.

She didn’t know what to think about his offer—his _job_ offer. Would it really be any different than what she was already doing? She would just be being told who to kill instead of choosing herself—told what information to target instead of choosing herself.

She was still upset with how the Ministry of Defense was handling the kids…

But to stay here… to live with Karasuma… she could _try_ at least…

She smiled sadly.

It probably didn’t mean what she wanted it to mean. He cared yes—this was proof of that… but it wasn’t asking her out, it wasn’t a… heh… _marriage_ proposal…

It was a friend helping a friend.

Probably…

Maybe…

No, stop—he’d made himself _very_ clear over the year. He’d shown no sign of changing his mind.

But still—why offer his house then… She could live on her own; even after a year she still had enough money to comfortably put a down payment on a small apartment and then some. He’d already offered the job…

It didn’t make any sense…

Had he been trying to bribe her…?

…well it was working.

But even then…

UGH! Why couldn’t he just straight up say what he meant instead of being all mysterious…

Irina’s huffed and threw her pillow off the bed, glaring at her night table. Her glare softened as she spotted the gun Karasuma had nonchalantly handed back to her when he’d left her at the train station despite the fact she had pulled it on him only minutes before and then her favorite book sitting next to it.

The one with the rose in it…

She sighed but smiled, the giddy feeling returning. It… it didn’t hurt to _dream_ right… as long as it was _just_ a dream…

Though when the time actually came—she would have to be careful. She couldn’t ruin this. Not this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know a lot of people take Karasuma offering her to move in with him as basically asking her out if not asking her to marry him, and that's a valid approach and fun to think about, but considering after the Reaper arc we see so little from the two--let alone much of anything from Karasuma towards Irina, I wanted to play with it. So no, in this story Karasuma isn't in love with Irina yet (or is very, very dense about his feelings) but he dose care for her--and wants to give her the support to turn out right. I'm hoping to expans upon their story in stories after this one that shows their relationship developing more.


	14. End Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story takes inspiration from both the anime and the manga, like how I used the Anime's version of events for the dinner on the beach (Irina had a brief flashback to her backstory instead of spilling her guts to Karasuma) here I'm mostly taking inspiration from the Manga, in that Houjou and the Wolfpack are what the kids are fighting instead of the random solider, and the kids being detained instead of just watched.

“They did _what!!_ ” Irina gasped into the phone, her bowl of popcorn flying off her lap and scattering to the ground. She couldn’t care less at the moment. “Have you told Karasuma—or the Octopus?!”

“N-no it’s fine,” Tooka laughed nervously and Irina frowned. “We handled it… I just wanted to talk to someone I guess…” She trailed off. “It was kind of scary…”

Irina’s gaze softened and she leaned back into her chair, softening her voice. “Tooka… if they _were_ hitmen—” And they very well could be—many hitman were the worse of the worst—“than Karasuma can set them straight—sexual harassment—putting it lightly— _has_ to be part of the no harm agreement—and if they _aren’t_ —then the Octopus could probably find them and get rid of them anyway.”

“Its… its fine…”

“You said they were enough to get _Karma_ to lower his head, without even a _fight._ ”

“I know—but I think he just did that so they would go away…” her voice was small again.

Irina took a deep breath. “You really don’t want them to know?”

“I don’t want to start a big thing just at the end of the school year,” she explained quietly. “Everyone is having so much fun. And anyway—they said they were just kidding…”

“Just kiddings are _never_ just kiddings.” Irina closed her eyes. She was still frustrated those high school kids had more or less gotten away with what they had done. She knew she was hypocritical to a point—but dammit she would not allow these kids to be hurt like that!

But she didn’t want to push either.

“Alright, I’ll keep quiet, but on three conditions. One you—or one of the boys—need to tell me as much as you can about them—what they looked like—I want to keep an eye out for them myself.” And also see if she recognized any of them from Lovro’s stock. “Two, I want you guys to walk in groups as much as possible, especially from the train stations to here. Third, have Ritsu active on your phone—she can call me if they show up to any of you again.”

“O-okay,” Tooka promised quietly, sounding a bit shaken. Irina softened more.

“Do you want to talk about it or be distracted for the moment?” she asked.

Tooka was silent for a second. “Be… be distracted I think…”

“Alright—there is this new movie coming out in France that I think you and Megu would like—”

 

Karasuma didn’t even blink as he stepped out of the school building to see what all the noise was about and found the students in various costumes and states of dress—the Octopus speeding around at Mach speed.

He watched bemusedly for a little bit—for the first time in a while having a moment without a pressing deadline or task. Despite the rather reluctant and done expressions on the students’ faces—he could also see humor and amusement as well. They weren’t as annoyed as they looked.

“You know… this February Korosensei has been helping us out a lot with our entrances exams and what not but… he’s also been just mostly doing his own thing,” Kayano mentioned as the Octopus flew to another group of students.

“Yeah… we’ve really been at his mercy,” Nagisa agreed rubbing at the back of his head with a sheepish grin.

Karasuma chuckled and the kids’ heads snapped to him. “He’s probably trying to pamper you.”

“Karasuma-sensei?”

“You’ve grown more than enough up through January. So now that you can stand on your own two feet he wants to pamper you a bit.” His mood faded a bit thinking of the looming deadline and how little time they had left. “That’s my best guess anyway.”

Kayano smiled softly. “I see…”

Nagisa gave him a look. Karasuma raised an eyebrow.

“Then Karasuma-sensei… do you think of us like that—that we can stand on our own two feet?” he asked. Karasuma blinked in surprise but then softened.

“Yeah… If I ever feel troubled I’ll be sure to rely on you guys—and trust you to be able to handle things—”

A rush of air and a tug made Karasuma blink and suddenly Irina was in his arms. She blinked wide-eyed up at him and only belatedly did he realize her clothes were different…

_No._

She was wearing a wedding dress.

_No._

“What is this?” he growled as a flash went off in front of him, feeling the pressure and warmth rise in his head.

“You need to join the cosplay action to!” the Octopus said trying to sound cheerfully innocent through his mischievous giggling. “Or is this really a fitting?”

He took a deep breath to calm himself. Irina had been walking around the last two weeks not quite in a daze but— _daydreaming_ quite a bit more. Sometimes he would look over at her and she would snap out of it, her face going red, and often scurrying away. Other times she looked more conflicted, biting at her thumb until she actually broke that nail—which she happily bitched about for the rest of the day. He wasn’t entirely sure what was up with her—though he had a good guess—but he wasn’t really surprised the Octopus had noticed and… _assumed_ …

He felt more than heard Irina giggle slightly. He peeked down at her warily and she grinned up at him—half mischievous and half… dopily? “I’m ready for my first kiss?” she teased

“Shut Up!” he snapped and she only grinned wider and puckered her lips. He glared down at her for a second—and then dropped her.

“OW! _Karasuma!_ ”

 

“You know—I wouldn’t tell him but that was kind of fun,” Irina admitted as she packed her bag to leave. The Octopus was finishing up his career counselling and it was relatively safe to assume he wasn’t listening in. “Visiting all those locations with the brats—even the ride was fun, like a rollercoaster. Too bad we couldn’t spend much time in any one place.”

Karasuma grunted. Irina rolled her eyes. She’d caught him smiling a few times to know he wasn’t as grumpy as he looked about it. It _had_ probably been a security issues—two giant bags full of kids flown by a giant yellow octopus but it was a miracle already that his existence hadn’t become public knowledge with how bad his disguises were and his constant trips around the world.

Irina went and grabbed her tablet only for her eyes to go wide as she noticed a copy of that faux wedding photo the Octopus taken hidden beneath. Quickly she covered it again with her tablet and glanced up red-face at Karasuma who thankfully was engrossed with his computer.

Feeling a slight bit guilty she slid her tablet off the table, picture and all, and hid both in her bag. God Damn Octopus—enabling her fantasies…

…he really wasn’t that bad a guy—at least not anymore.

It was a shame… in another life they could have been friends.

“So…” Irina started as she shouldered her bag and nervously hovered by the desks. Karasuma glanced up after a moment with a raised eyebrow. “I was wondering… if you wanted to get a drink tonight?”

She really still had no idea what he meant. She knew what she hoped—and also knew what she thought was most likely—but the idea of just asking outright made her stomach twist. And anyway—getting drinks with coworkers was normal after work.

“I can’t. I have some things I need to finish tonight.”

Irina’s heart fell slightly though she pulled on her mask to avoid showing it. She smiled. “Of course!”

She turned to the door.

“Perhaps another night,” he continued and Irina blinked in surprise, and then smiled for real.

“I’d… I’d like that…”

 

Irina blinked at her phone. Karasuma had texted her and for a second she had hoped he had changed his mind. But all it said was: Now.

What did that mean—

A boom thundered through the city and the ground shook—bright pinkish purple light spilled in through the bar’s windows. Irina ran to them and stared.

“Well,” she mused to herself as she watched wide-eyed at the beacon of light as it faded. “I guess now I know why he couldn’t come get a drink…”

 

“Karasuma!”

“What?” he snapped and then felt a bit bad. Irina wasn’t the source of his frustration at the moment. Even if she _had_ called three times in quick succession instead of waiting for him to call her back when he could.

“I just lost contact with the Brats.”

You were in contact? He almost said but stopped himself. The students had been refusing to pick up or respond to him in any way since they fled the media. If they were in contact with her he rather not know.

“I haven’t been able to get in contact all day,” he told her instead.

“Yeah—I _wonder_ why,” she said snidely—obviously they had said something to her. “But this isn’t like that—Ritsu was giving me constant updates and she just _stopped!_ ”

His stomach turned. That was alarming. The mobile version of Ritsu was more capable of being hacked than her true body and perhaps they had gotten her creators in to deal with her since his superiors didn’t really consider her one of the students—but yet…

“I’ll see what I can find out—” A beep told him he had a call on his other line. “I have another call. I’ll get back to you.”

 

Karasuma stormed into the organization, blood pumping in his ears, his endless well of rage burning, bubbling, and just _barely_ sheathed under his skin.

“Ah! You must be Karasuma! We haven’t met yet. I’m—”

“I don’t give a shit!” he snapped, grabbing the man by his tie and pulling him close. Grimly he was pleased to see the tissues and bruising on his nose—one of them got a good shot in. _Good._ “Why have you detained those students!”

“Because they will impeded and hinder the operation—what more reason do we need,” another voice said calmly and Karasuma turned in a rage only to freeze.

A man in glasses, a scar over his right eye, long dark hair, leading a group of trained soldiers—no _mercenaries…_

_No._

“Shocked aren’t you. Certainty with your positions you have at least heard of the name Houjou. First a legendary assassin—and now a legendary soldier!”

_Shit._

 

“Irina.”

“I’ve see you’ve let yourself in,” she replied dryly as she otherwise ignored him and continued to pull what looked like small electronic parts out of a box on the hotel’s dresser.

“I asked the front desk.” He hadn’t needed to use his status to get in—Irina had given the front desk permission to send him up if he showed. Whether that had been from weak hopes or a new order now that things had hit the fan he didn’t know. It was good though—it made it less likely someone would notice he’d come. “You got my email then.”

She glanced over, her eyes narrow, and he took that as a yes. His email had been short, to the point, and exactly what his superiors would want him to share. He had hoped that Irina would be able to see through it.

He wasn’t convinced she _hadn’t_ been able and wasn’t just being stubborn.

“How could you let them be detained like that,” she snapped and he bristled. “Have you heard what their saying on TV lately!”

“I’m aware,” he told her.

She snorted. “And you just _let_ it happen.” His eyes narrowed and he swallowed back a resort. “Stupid government, stupid military—they have been getting reports for a _year_ —they _know_ what that octopus is like, just let the damn brats spend his last few days with him—but _no_ —have to throw around their power and might—who cares about those below them—Can’t believe you want me to work with them—” she mumbled on and he let her. He knew she was angry and that she needed to blow off steam. Finally after a few moments she began to trail off into a frustrated silence.

“Things aren’t so simple,” he continued.

“They’re _not_ , are they?” she muttered snidely.

“The governments involved have hired the Wolfpack and Houjou.”

Irina froze, from the side he could still see her eyes go wide and her face pale. Obviously she knew of him as well.

“ _Shit_ —that’s who attacked Tooka.”

“Yes—What!” Someone had attacked Yada—when?

“A couple of weeks ago several adult foreigners attacked Yada with intent of… _kidnapping_ her… some of the boys intervened—don’t give me that look she made me promise not to mention any of it to you or the Octopus,” she snapped at his glare. “After what happened she was shaken and I didn’t want to push—I _did_ take countermeasures to keep an eye out for them!”

He _had_ noticed the last few days the students coming up the mountain in odd time for them—out of routine—and in larger groups. Irina had been walking with them as well—always Yada and whoever was walking with her that day. He had simply assumed she was trying to get as much time with them as she could before they headed off in different directions.

He grunted.

She shook her head. “But all she mentioned was long dark hair since he was watching from the back and behind—I didn’t get the scar or glasses…”

“They must have been testing the student’s skills,” he said. She nodded.

“Yeah well—they didn’t get as much as they think I bet,” she smirked weakly. “Since Karma bowed his head instead of trying to fight back.”

Karasuma raised an eyebrow in surprise—that was unexpected but useful. He must have recognized the danger they had been in.

Irina sighed and then turned back to the electronic parts she had been going through. “So what do we do now?”

He raised his eyebrow.

“Don’t act like you being here _doesn’t_ mean you have a plan,” she snorted.

“What makes you think that?”

She barked a laugh. “What—you’re saying you came here to fuck!” Irina turned to him fully, lips pursed, and then went back to the electronic components with a roll of her eyes. “It’s because _I’m_ not the only one who learned and changed this year.”

He smiled slightly and stepped closer. “Well—I have a few ideas, but I would like to hear your thoughts.” He eyed the parts on the table. “Like what you’re planning on doing with that bomb.”

She grinned.

 

Irina was tired. Two days of constant flirting and fluttering of eyelashes and cutesy concern over her students—at the very people keeping them from her—was always exhausting and it was taking longer than she liked to turn them around—she was out of practice—she _had_ to be—but she was getting there.

She’d managed the map Karasuma had suggested already—which was good because she wouldn’t have much time to modify it tomorrow, and she was pretty sure of it—though she wished she could get a second opinion.

Her eyes fluttered to her nightstand and the cold phone resided within. The two of them had gone silent in order to hide their intentions and despite it being far from the longest time she’d hadn’t seen or heard from Karasuma her heart panged.

She was terrified. If she couldn’t get them out of there—it was all on _her_. The brats not getting to say goodbye… was all on _her_. She had to do it. She _had_ to.

She didn’t want to see those brats hurt any more than they had to be.

The pressure was intense—almost as much as her first two missions had been—but her eyes drifted a bit further to the book also on the table. Her favorite—the one she’d pressed the rose into.

Karasuma believed in her.

_“Three days to befriend the guards enough to let me explore the facility enough to figure out the best extraction route and briefly check up on the students long enough to pass on the bomb and map when even_ you _weren’t supposed to be in there…” Irina muttered to herself and bit at her thumb._

_“Yes. It shouldn’t be any problem for you.”_

Her face burned slightly at the memory and she took a deep breath, centering herself.

She could do this.

 

She did it.

_Thank God._

Pure elation and relief passed through her as the brats ran around the corner, their eyes widening as they caught sight of her. She threw on her smirk to hide how panicked she’d been. “You’re late,” she teased, “even after I made up a perfect escape route for you.”

Tooka held up the map she had passed her, her cheeks still a bit red and not quite managing to look her in the eye. “Bitch-sensei… this…?”

Irina shrugged. “Karasuma suggested it.” Her eyes drifted to the sky as the kids rushed to pull on the shoes she had bought for them. Thankfully she’d still had the list of their shoe sizes from the heels training. “It took a lot longer that I had thought—but after enough time as the anxious and worried teacher they began to let down their guard, soon enough they were chatting with me like a peer and it gave me a chance to make that for you.”

“How did you even manage to fit all of this in your mouth…?” Masayoushi asked.

Irina just grinned, her mind going back to Karasuma’s expression—a mix of horrified and fascinated—when she had proven to him she could sneak all the components of the bomb in to the students.

“I have my ways,” was all she told them.

Rinka snorted. “I guess it makes sense—that’s just one of the techniques of the world’s most prominent seductress for you…”

Ryūnosuke beside her choked after a second as he caught on to what she was saying. Rinka smirked.

“I overheard them say the laser will be set off just before midnight tonight,” she told them, all humor disappearing in a moment. The students went quiet. “I… don’t know how this will end… either way—tomorrow is your graduation day” She managed a small, proud, smile. “So this is you last class. So make sure you Brats take it with everything you got!”

They looked startled for a moment but she could see the fight snap back in them. “Y-yes Ma’am!”

They turned and began to run off—orders being passed around. Irina bittersweetly watched them go and for a moment forgot the constant fear and anxiety on the back of her mind and swirling in her gut.

“Bitch-sensei?”

Irina blinked. Megu grinned as she yelled back. “Be sure to tag along with Karasuma-sense!” she ordered. “We think the world of _both_ of you!”

Warmth flooded her like never before as the kids turned different corners and were soon out of sight. “I guess… I have to now…” she mumbled to herself.

She knew she was just talking about tonight—they had no idea about what had been offered on Valentine’s Day or her conflicted thoughts but…

There was no way she could let go of those kids, not anymore.

 

“You want to enter the barrier!!!”

Irina fought with herself to avoid rolling her eyes as Mr. Whoever-his-name sputtered.

“We expect the students who escaped will be heading towards the school—In the event the cornered target uses this to his advantage this situation will quickly take a turn for the worse.” Karasuma replied calmly and effortlessly. She had to give him credit—he was good at dealing with bullshit.

She also liked the use of we—it made her feel important—like she actually mattered to these people instead of just being a failed contractor. She wondered if Karasuma realized he had used it.

“There is a chance that with us—the coworkers who shared his space for the last year—we may be able to keep him calm until the laser is fired.”

The man gave a bewildered smirk. “You realize there is no chance those students will enter the school grounds—even if they could manage to get past the line—which I doubt—Houjou and his men have taken up position on the mountain itself. Even if they somehow managed to parachute in they would be shot down.”

“Yes… this is only a remote possibility—and in the event that it occurred I would ask your permission.”

The man humped but waved his hand humoringly. “Sure, sure—do as you like. In the rare event the students even make it to the _barrier_ I’ll give you permission to enter.”

“Thank you—that’s all we needed, we will let ourselves out,” Karasuma turned away and Irina followed him amused as he heard the man shout about not being done talking. Her amusement faded slowly as they left the room and trekked towards the car deck.

“Do you… do you think those brats will make it?” she asked as they entered Karasuma’s car.

For a second he was quiet—and more open than she was used to. She could see his own worry and uncertainty on his face and it was almost comforting to know she wasn’t the only one. Then it faded away—not completely and not like he as masking it—or hiding it—but instead turning to determination.

“They know that mountain like the back of their hands. They spent the last year there having fun with, taking classes with, and going after a super creature. They’ll know their way around it blindfolded by now.” He couldn’t help his pleased smirk. “Compared to a group who had only been fighting humans in far off locations… the disparity in their experience is just too great.”

Irina watched him with amusement—at the smirk that was slowly morphing into a somewhat wild but pleased smile—the fire in his eyes—the surety in his words.

Such a proud papa… a very _dangerous_ proud papa.

She smiled to herself and looked away.

“I’ve already told them to be cautious—and I’ve lowered the enemy’s guard by understating their abilities,” he continued and Irina’s smiled deepened.

A _doting_ , proud, and dangerous papa.

“We’ve done what we can for now—we just have to believe in them while we worry.”

She nodded as he started the car.

 

“Only an hour and a half left until the spear is fully charged,” the leading man at the boarder said to his second. “Shame we will be destroying him so thoroughly, such a waste of a rare test subject—all in the name of world peace.”

Karasuma huffed slightly at the remark, closing his eyes, and willing his annoyance away. Irina shifted slightly beside him but otherwise didn’t react.

It was people like him that had caused this mess in the first place.

An alarm sounded and he snapped his eyes open. Right on time.

“What is that!?”

“An intruder on the Mountain, sir—seems they’ve gotten past the line!”

“What—how!!”

He fought the urge to smirk.

“We’ve lost contact with Squad B!”

“Squad C and D have gone down!”

The leader growled and turned to them. “What is the meaning of this— _Karasuma!_ ”

“This mountain is those students home turf,” he explained calmly. “They’ve spent a year training to fight a super being there. It must have given them an advantage.”

“Were _you_ behind all this,” he snapped.

“The student’s escaped on their own, made their own decisions, and are following their own plan—I had nothing to do with that.”

“We’ve lost contact with everyone!”

He growled as he turned away to bark orders and Karasuma couldn’t help allowing himself to smirk—if only for a moment. It was almost a bittersweet feeling—seeing how far his students had grown and matured. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to handle those twenty eight alone anymore.

He was proud of them.

 

The brisk walk up the mountain to the barrier was almost eerily silent. Too much so—it let her think and that was _not_ what she needed right now.

She pulled out her gun and opened it just for something to fiddle with. She counted the anti-sensei bullets before hesitating and then beginning to take them out. Karasuma shifted slightly at her side.

“What are you doing?”

“Switching ammo,” she told him as she slotted in some live rounds.

“You think you will be firing at anyone?”

She shrugged even as she couldn’t help the sour feeling in her stomach. She couldn’t help but feel like they were missing something—forgetting something. She hesitated as she went to put in the last round. “I don’t know—but I feel like these would be more useful if I do need to.”

She didn’t explain further—she didn’t need to. He just looked at her for a long moment before nodding.

She’d do anything to let those kids have their last moment—even if it meant shooting to kill.

 

“Karasuma—do you hear that?”

A tune had sprung up over the quiet still air. For a moment it was low and frankly creepy but as they jogged closer and closer and those singing grew louder it became recognizable.

“—py Birthday To You—”

He quickened his pace, Irina following suit without a complaint, and before long they were turning around the corner of the school building. Relief hit instantly, loosening the tight knot of anxiety that had been there for days now.

In the distance the kids stood in a circle—their teacher between them, a small flickering light of a candle as they sang.

Things were ok—

With no warning the cake and the ground under it was smashed to pieces, dust billowed through the air. Karasuma could only stare in shock and confusion before a shadow caught his eyes and they darted to the top of the school building.

Shiro. Yanagisawa. Him and the suited man they had seen before.

_He’d forgotten about them._

“Happy Birthday,” he greeted. “The time has come—I shall give you the cruelest death.”

The “reaper.” The man he had beaten and had thought taken away and locked up. Yanagisawa had gotten his hands on him. Yanagisawa had changed him.

And they both wanted nothing but for the Target to die.

They fought. Yangasawa—also changed—joined the fighting and they fought some more. The Octopus was losing and Karasuma had never felt so helpless— _so_ outmatched—before now as the blurs of speed and constant sonic boom after sonic boom. The student’s _far_ to close. His hand gripped his gun and shook in indecisiveness.

Then—The Octopus deflected a blow—and then another—a dodge—another blow. Yanagisawa’s attack with his light was deflected by a spray of dirt, then another blow.

“He’s… he’s fighting back,” Irina mumbled from his side. “He’s learning…” she almost laughed. “Figures…”

Yanagisawa laughed as well and instantly the brief feeling of relief disappeared. With a snap of his fingers the beast wasn’t behind him but instead—

NO.

Karasuma was frozen helpless as the children were targeted—only a just barely in time shielding from the Octopus saved them only for the beast to attack from another angle—and then another.

The Octopus blocked each one—but he was slowing down—sooner or later he would be too late.

 “Such darkly seething emotions…” Irina muttered beside him—almost sounding resigned. “The strongest urges to kill come from the most darkly twisted and extreme forms of love …he won’t be satisfied until he rips his target to shreds,” Irina said darkly. “Physically… _and_ emotionally.”

Karasuma snarled at the truth of the words—and the fact that the Yanagisawa fully intended on killing the student’s no matter what happened, and dashed forward, pulling his gun.

“Stop Yanagisawa!” He shouted. The man turned to him and his raised gun with a grin. “Don’t get the student’s anymore involved—or else—”

A pain in his chest—like he’d been hit by a train, a brief feeling of weightlessness and then nothing.

“Karasuma!”

 

Irina ran to him. She didn’t have much else she could do. The fight just beside them thundered with boom after boom. The children’s shouts of fear and worry over their quickly fading teacher. Hysterical laughter from that asshole—and there was _nothing_ she could do…

She turned Karasuma over. He groaned—he was still alive at least—but didn’t quite manage to open his eyes. Her hand found his head—wincing as she found some blood—and she cradled it without thinking—the fear swirling in her stomach making her nauseous and numb.

She darted her eyes back to the battle. Yanagisawa was ignoring them—she had never grabbed his attention so she wasn’t surprised. Everything she had ever heard about him made him out to be one to underestimate women anyway.

Her grip on her gun tightened and she cursed herself.

She’d made the wrong choice—when she’d changed her ammo. Crouching over Karasuma as protectively as she could she scrambled to change it again as the fighting continued with the kids _far_ to close and the Octopus taking _far_ too much damage.

Maybe while they were distracted—while their arrogance made them think she was not a threat—she could get a shot in.

She wouldn’t be an idiot like Karasuma—she wouldn’t announce her shot.

One shot… which would do almost nothing and get her killed—but if the Octopus could take advantage of that minute distraction to aim to kill…

She _had_ to try—she had to try and save those kids.

One twisted adult for twenty eight wonderful, _amazing_ kids—it was a no brainer.

She just needed to move—she couldn’t get Karasuma killed with her… she just… _couldn’t._

She moved to dash to the side only to stumble as a hand grabbed her ankle. She bit her tongue to avoid a shout.

“Irina.”

She blinked and then glanced quickly down at Karasuma before snapping her gaze back to the fight. He groaned but sat up and she was conflicted over telling him to stay down or focus in the fight. “Don’t.”

She froze.

“It won’t do anything… but kill you.”

“But…” But she couldn’t just stand here. She had to try. She _had_ to.

“Irina.”

He tried to find his legs and stumbled—she scrambled to catch him and helped him stand.

“Do you remember what I told you—with the Reaper?”

_“It… may be different than from the world you were raised in but… the children and I… we_ need _you in our world.”_

She stood frozen—conflicted. Yes, but… how could she been in the children world… if they were _dead._

“I can’t… I can’t just let them _die_ ,” she barely whispered her arms shaking. “I have to… I have to do _something._ ”

She hadn’t when her parents died—not until they were already dead. She couldn’t… she couldn’t go through that again.

“They’re _not_ going to die,” Karasuma told her and she almost laughed from hysteria.

But somewhere—deep down—she _believed_ him.

 

Karasuma had lied.

That wasn’t fair to him. He hadn’t done so purposefully, but he had lied.

Kaede was dead.

Irina stared numbly as Kaede’s body fell to the ground, Karasuma stiff and deadweight against her shoulder.

Maybe if she had acted—maybe… maybe…

Maybe’s didn’t matter though.

The Octopus burst into rage and then cooled into quite fury. The kids took the chance and made a break for it—Nagisa grabbed Kaede’s body.

Their movement snapped Irina from her despair just enough to start leading Karasuma away as well. He was snapped out of it a second latter—and with each step he regained more weight and control. At least she might be able to keep him safe.

At least the rest of the children may live.

But Kaede…

 

Kaede was… alive!

The Octopus… he saved her—through some miracle of pseudo-science bullshit or whatever but she was _alive._

She wanted to cry and laugh and surprised herself of not doing either.

But it didn’t take long for the cheer to fade to subdued somberness. It was almost midnight.

The light above was brighter than the moon.

If the children were going to kill him—they needed to do it now.

“Ah—but before attendance I must pay my final respects to my colleagues.”

Irina’s eyes snapped up from where she had been staring at her feet, and she could feel Karasuma shift in surprise beside her, finally back fully on his feet.

“Irina-sensei, are you sure that you don’t want to participate in this assassination—it’s your one and only chance to claim the reward.”

Irina could feel everyone’s—The Octopus, the brats, Karasuma’s—eyes on her. For a long second she was silent and then she smiled weakly and allowed herself to fall to her knees—in respect more than anything else.

“I’ve already gained enough from you all—the brats and from you… Bonds established and experience had…” Her smile widened slightly. “This assassination signifies a bond that should belong to just you and the kids.”

The Octopus grinned and somehow that made Irina feel a bit better.

“And Karasuma-sensei.”

Irina’s smile grew as she glanced up and to the side to see Karasuma start. What had he expected?

“You mentored these students and turned them into the fine people they are today—in the future, it would mean the world to me if you would continue to shepherd over them and guide them whenever they are led astray.”

His face softened, his surprised look turning to a soft smile that made Irina feel warm inside as he joined her on the ground on one knee.

“Of course… You’ve caused me a lot of grief this year, but it’s one I will likely never forget.” His smile dropped as he looked up and caught the Octopus eyes. “This is farewell, Koro-sensei.”

The Octopus grinned more and with that roll call began. Irina couldn’t call it the worst thing she had ever witnessed—but it was close. As each child stuttered or choked out their name Irina’s heart broke more and more.

And then Nagasi brought down the knife and he was gone.

And Irina’s heart shattered.

The children howled in pain and grief and misery as their beloved sensei dissolved under them leaving only his gown and tie behind. Their howls set Irina off and she swallowed repeatedly to keep the tears to only a few. Next to her Karasuma glanced away but before he did she would have sworn his eyes had looked extra shiny.

Koro-sensei was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.I love the idea of Karasuma being horrfiedly fascinated with Irina's ability to swallow pretty much anything. I even had this line I really wanted to use but couldn't fit in:
> 
> "You could always just swallow it."  
> "Really, now of all times you get a sense of humor..."
> 
> Safe to say Irina has no gag reflex, thogh Karasuma hasn't thought that far yet *Eyebrow wiggle*
> 
> 2\. Karasuma is absolutely purposefully using we to.
> 
> 3\. Irina is very attracted to Karasuma's kind of dangerous Papa Wolfness--very attracted.
> 
> 4\. You know...I'm actually rather tempted now to write a oneshot where Irina does take that shot, and is the one impaled instead of Kaede. It would be an interesting spiritual sequel to "Shot Through The Heart." A then they would match. Maybe even place it in the same universe--or maybe not. Uncertain of that right now.


	15. After the End Times

Before long the two of them stood and began corralling the students into the schoolhouse and away from his clothes and the memory. People would be coming soon and governmental intervention was the last thing these kids need.

They found books on their desks. Large books. A significantly oversized yearbook (Which just so happened still had all the photos everyone thought destroyed they would soon find) and an even more oversized and personalized book of advice.

Obviously the Octopus had been bored, but as Irina watched the look of awe and trembling lips on the kid’s faces… it probably was the best thing he could have done for these kids.

She snuck away as Karasuma was finishing checking in, slipping into the staff room and letting out a huff of a laugh at the two yearbooks left on their claimed desks, and then she rolled her eyes but she still smiled as she caught sight on a much thinner book of advice on hers. The Octo… Korosensei didn’t know when to stop teaching.

She grabbed one of the rolling chairs and pulled it back into the hall just as Karasuma stepped out of the classroom door.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“I’ll keep an eye on the kids,” she told him quietly, stopping the chair just next to the door where she’d be able to peek in if necessary. “And you deal with the mess that’s going to be storming up here as soon as that beam goes off.” She looked up at the cealing and though she couldn’t see it she knew how bright it had been as they came in.

Barely a minute now. Hopefully it really _was_ harmless to anyone but tentacles.

If now well—it was too late to make a break for the barrier.

A thought hit her as Karasuma nodded.

“Actually are you okay to do so…? You took a bad hit.”

He paused slightly and Irina knew that meant he was hurting pretty bad. She bit her lip. He’d been hit hard enough in the ribs to go flying ten feet, and hit his head when he landed enough to knock the wits out of him for a bit. He’d been struggling to stand not that long ago.

“I’ll be fine,” he told her and she almost sighed but stopped herself. There’re really wasn’t another option anyway—the people rushing up the mountain wouldn’t stop to her—they likely wouldn’t stop to Karasuma—but he at least had a chance.

She nodded and before he could turn away the world went blindingly pink for a second. Irina rubbed at her eyes to clear them and looked to the clock.

It was midnight.

Graduation Day had arrived.

 

The kids fell asleep rather quickly. Irina was both surprised and not. After all the adrenalin and emotional whiplash and turmoil it was no wonder they were exhausted.

She was exhausted to, but she couldn’t sleep. She had a job to do.

Irina snapped her eyes from the sleeping children to the entrance hall just in time to catch Karasuma walking in. He glanced at her, and then turned to head to the staff room. She watched him leave curiously but was too tired to go see what he was doing.

He wasn’t being followed at least—that was something.

He returned quickly, dragging along another rolling chair, and settling it on the other side of the door, before plopping down on it rather exhaustedly. She watched him as he rubbed at his face, glad to see that a small bandage had been placed on his head where he’d been bleeding and his tie had been removed and his shirt buttoned messily—implying his ribs had gotten looked at as well.

“Well?” she asked.

“I showed them the clothing, and they have video evidence of the kid’s killing him. So they are letting me handle the children for now,” he told her.

She sighed, feeling some of the tension in her shoulders release. Not all of it though—she still wasn’t convinced the children wouldn’t be punished in some way for their escape and attack. “Good.”

He grunted in agreement and leaned against the doorframe, his eyes heavy. He didn’t seem to even be trying to hide his exhaustion as much as he was trying to stay awake and it made Irina feel an odd mix of warm and concerned inside.

“Get some sleep,” she told him. “I’ll keep watch.”

He glanced at her but to her surprise he didn’t argue.

 

“I’m sure all of you maybe finding some aspects of our current situation unacceptable.” Karasuma told the class after he’d manage to gather them all up again once morning bathroom breaks had been handled and the breakfast he’d managed to get ordered had been handed out. “Things will get tougher with all the media scrutiny you will be receiving… and we will likely have to ask you all to remain silent about certain bits of classified information.”

Karasuma brows furrowed, thinking of all the complication and stress that the children would be going through in the near future. After everything that had happened it was the last thing they needed—but it would happen none the less.

He bowed, steadfast ignoring the pain in his ribs as he did so. “It goes without saying that we will continue trying our best to protect you—but allow me to apologize in advance for any inconvenience that you may experience in the near future—”

“Sensei… We’ll be fine,” Maehara interrupted with a grin. “We’ll all do our best to get back to our normal lives.”

“Yeah—after all, we wouldn’t want to put any unneeded stress on Karasuma-sensei!” Okana continued brightly.

“But in exchange,” Katoka said. “Please allow us to participate in the graduation ceremony today—We believe everything that happened this year—including our clashes with the other students—were an important part of our time with Korosensei!”

Karasuma couldn’t help but smile slightly. “Agreed. After all—that’s what I’m here for.”

Isogai looked back at the students behind him who nodded. Karasuma only just had enough time to be a bit confused before he was standing tall and ordering the others to do the same.

Irina and Karasuma were both frozen as the children stood and then bowed—confusion and shock coursing through both of them.

“Karasuma-sensei and Bitch-sensei,” they chorused as if they had rehearsed this. “You have all our gratitude for your instruction and guidance this past year!”

Karasuma blinked rapidly at the smiling students and then looked over at Irina. She looked almost as surprised, but as he caught her eyes she smiled softly at him, her eyes crinkling softly.

He blinked again—feeling rather warm and peaceful.

It didn’t last long and Karasuma rubbed at the bridge of his nose while Irina laughed lightly. The students had switched gears from their humble thanks to excited chattering as they debated where the graduation may take place, and panicked over lack of uniforms to wear.

He smiled though, because despite the fact they had to still be hurting on the inside—the students had become so resilient, had made leaps and bounds since he’d first met them at the beginning of the year. For the first time he was utterly sure—that while there may be a few difficulties and low spots—that the students— _all of them_ —would be okay in time.

 

The kids were bused to graduation day at city hall at their request and Irina and Karasuma went with them both for protection and as their surviving teachers.

Then they escaped a mob of press to the Department of Ministry’s closest offices where their reward was finally delivered.

As the kids talked and argued about how to use it Irina leaned up against the wall almost in a doze. She hadn’t been sleeping well the last several days with the kids in custody and her dreams, and after a long all-nighter and almost as long day after that she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

“Bitch-sensei?”

Her eyes snapped open and she jumped to attention, blinking rapidly at the students who laughed at her.

“What?” she grumbled embarrassed, though deep down pleased to see them laughing already.

“Are you sure you don’t want any of the prize?” Megu asked.

She blinked.

“Your prize?”

“I mean—yeah, but it’s not like you didn’t help us a lot all year,” Rio shrugged. “Karasuma-sensei said he can’t take any because he was paid to help us, but you weren’t really.”

“I got paid to teach,” she brushed off, feeling herself blush. She had though it hadn’t been enough to cover her day to day hotel costs. Even so—despite the money she had spent all year to stick around, she still had some left. It wasn’t the worst financial straits she’d ever been in. Plus…. She wouldn’t have to worry about housing at least.

Probably…

Had Karasuma been planning on making her pay rent?

“I’m fine,” she said shaking off that thought. (It would make sense—they were, or rather would be, just roommates after all not … anything more than that.) “It’s your prize, share it with yourselves.”

They grumbled a bit at that, which made Irina feel a bit special, but went back to debating amongst themselves.

“So we each take a little bit for school and stuff.”

“Yeah though maybe we should up it a bit—so Isogai doesn’t feel weird taking more.”

“He has more need though—his mom unable to work and his two younger siblings...”

“Yeah but he’d still feel weird…”

“Shh, guys he’ll be back from the bathroom any second!”

Irina huffed a laugh and allowed her eyes to close again.

 

Several days later Irina stepped into the schoolhouse for the last time—or at least, the last time in any capacity as a teacher. The children had already retrieved the last of their things, and now just Karasuma and her were left to pick up there’s.

They didn’t have to come together.

They did.

Irina was quiet as she walked through the empty hall, peeking into classrooms that all year had been full of laughter and groans and encouragement. She stopped an took a good look out over the sports field and the mountain beyond—remembering gym classes spied upon and games of Assassination Badminton played.

It was bittersweet.

It wouldn’t be the last time she was here she was sure. The children were in the process of buying the mountain with their prize and she couldn’t imagine that they wouldn’t drag her back here—both for cleanup efforts and parties.

But the lack of a mischievous giggle and obnoxious grin would always be there.

It would take time to get used to—for all of them—but the kids had already managed to laugh.

They would be okay.

She would make sure of it.

Irina finally followed Karasuma into the staffroom, catching him winching as he bent. He was still hurt; he’d broken a few ribs from the hit—but he was healing.

He was okay.

Somehow they had all ended up okay.

Even Korosensei, in the end he had gotten exactly what he wanted.

 

“You did a good job, you know,” Irina told him that last evening just as he stepped out of the staffroom one last time with the last of his things.

Karasuma frowned at the odd and sudden comment and turned his head to find her standing at an open window, her bag over her shoulder, looking wistful. “A good job?”

“Yes,” she turned to him and offered him one of her smaller smiles. Not the seductive one she threw on whenever, not the gleeful happy one when something happened that managed to shock her composure enough for her feelings to come through, but a small content one. “You know… of training up those kids to be assassins _and_ still get to be kids.” Her smile turned sad and she turned to look back out the window, leaning her chin in one hand. “I figured after all that dreary stuff I said on Valentine’s Day that I should mention that.”

For a moment Karasuma didn’t reply and just stared at her. She didn’t seem to mind, just watching the sun set over the sports field. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say. He wasn’t entirely sure what had brought that on.

He walked up next to her and set down his bag, looking out the window himself.

“That was mostly him,” he corrected, his voice low, ignoring the slight heat under his collar despite the relatively cool evening, and knowing the subject was hard on her. Honestly knowing the subject was still hard on him as well.

She snorted and shook her head. “You did at _least_ as much as the big guy. From fighting the school to fighting the government, and let be honest, from what we heard, Korosensei went from harden crazy assassin to kind school teacher in basically no time at all—you think he did that entirely without some help to imitate?” She snorted. “You even made an assassination volleyball or whatever game for them to play, you made it _fun_ …” her voice trailed off and her gaze turned distant.

Karasuma frowned. He didn’t really know where she went when she was like that. From that day at the beach until now… but he had a bit of an idea. He sighed and looked up at the orange sky and red clouds, allowing her moment to herself, uncertain what to do as always.

“I never really did much there, did I,” she mused tiredly, seemingly more here but just as cheerful. Karasuma glanced back to give her a good look.

“Perhaps not directly in that matter, no,” he agreed. “But you helped them in other ways. Okuda is much better in conversation and social situations now, you helped several of the students figure out which careers they want to pursue, several of the students were even able to get tested as fluent in English from your efforts.” He paused. “But most importantly I think, is that you showed concern over how all of this may affect them in the long run… in a way you showed it before either of us truly did.”

She snorted. “What are you talking about?”

“That dinner, on the beach, when you asked me if I knew what killing was really like,” he explained watching her eyes go wide. “At the time I didn’t put much thought into it, but I think I understand what you were saying now.”

For a second she only stared at him and then her face went red.

“Ugh, don’t remind me of that day,” Irina groaned leaning her forehead on the windowsill. Karasuma couldn’t help the slight curling of his lips. “I messed up _so_ bad…”

“Messed up? You were trying something?”

She shot right up, face red as a tomato, and she blabbered on with “wells” and “errs” and “really it was nothing just stuff that happened earlier in the day.” And he struggled to keep his smile down. He still frankly wasn’t sure what to do with her. He still frankly wasn’t sure why he’d offered his home—it had been a rather last minute and spur of the moment idea—and yet one he hadn’t taken back either. But he had to admit, seeing the number one honeypot assassin—or rather the _former_ number one—so flustered and red _was_ rather fun.

Apparently he hadn’t managed to keep the humor off his face as well as he meant to as suddenly her rambles stopped and she plopped her head back down on a hand, looking up at him with an eye roll and a pout. “You know—you’re rather insufferable sometimes,” she grumbled.

He blinked at her. “I have no idea what you mean.”

She snorted with another eye roll, but he saw the slightest hint of a smile as she turned back to the sun and the few stars that had started to appear. “ _Sure_ you don’t.”

He allowed himself a huff of a laugh and was bemused by the slight jump Irina did at the sound before he also turned back to the sun.

“I think I’ll actually miss this place,” she admitted as the last sun ray dipped away. “Sweltering heat, biting bugs, shitty walk and all.”

He huffed another laugh. “Do you think you’ll feel the same way on the walk down?”

“Smartass,” she went quiet again and slowly Karasuma’s small smile fell. He’d hoped to make her feel better—but perhaps it was too soon for that to stick.

“Do you think they will be okay?” she finally asked the question he knew she’d been building up to. Karasuma scanned the sky as he thought, eyes drifting from one star to another.

“I believe they will be, in time,” he went with. “And if they have trouble, the Ministry isn’t about to just cut them loose, they’ll be keeping an eye on them for a while.” Irina curled her nose a bit, and while her voice was relatively neutral Karasuma had come to realize that she didn’t have much faith in the Ministry of Defense, or perhaps just government and military as a whole.

He really couldn’t blame her. He wondered if after all this she would still be willing to follow him—err, to _quit_ being an assassin and _join_ the MoD.

“That’s… something.”

“They’ve hired a child psychiatrist,” he continued. “Who will be available for them for the next few years at least and has been briefed of the situation…” he still remembered the scorned look she had sent his and his superior’s way as she was explained that they’d taught more than twenty fifteen year olds to kill their beloved teacher—and that they had. “And my superior has already told me I will likely be overseeing keeping an eye on them for a least the foreseeable future—since they already know me.”

He may have forced a talk about their treatment of the students—and may have had a talk about his actions in return. He supposed he was lucky to not have been demoted, or even fired for what he did. He didn’t regret it though and didn’t think he would of if he had been.

His lips curled slightly. Maybe if he had he would have followed Irina into _her_ job

“That’s good,” Irina told him her face softening. “You’d take good care of them” His collar got hot again and he glanced away. “You’re a good person.”

Actually slightly flustered Karasuma shifted on his heels a bit, and the slight weight of something in his coat pocket hitting his chest found him his escape.

“Oh, I wanted to give this to you,” he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a key and a slip of paper. Irina blinked at him blankly as it held it out for her to take. “What, did you think I was lying?”

Her face went red and she snatched it from his hands. Her eyes darted down to read the slip—his address—and that back up to his eyes looking awed. Perhaps she _had_ thought he’d been lying, or forgotten.

“N-no just…”

“You already have my number. Just call me when you’re ready to move in. Once that’s done I can see about pushing your request to join the Ministry of Defense.” He picked up his bag again and threw it over one shoulder. “Are you ready to go?”

“I… yes, I am.”

He smiled. “Then let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, this chapter of their story is done. But hopefully more will come. I already have a fic detailing the awkwardness of moving in played out, and a few random scenes I've been debating just posting in a collection. You haven't gotten rid of me just yet ^^
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed ^^
> 
> Let it be known that Irina is supposed to be using/thinking Megu's first name by this point, but I've gotten so mixed up over her name over and over again that for now I've given up. I may edit it again later. I may have to do some other editing as well.
> 
> And yes, I HC that Karasuma is easy to fluster, just throw so honest offhand compliments at him matter of factly XD


End file.
